Junta chief frontrunner as Gabon holds first election since 2023 coup

Gabonese voters cast ballots in a presidential election expected to make junta chief Brice Oligui Nguema the elected leader.

Gabonese voters began casting ballots on Saturday (April 12, 2025) in a Presidential election with eight candidates that is widely expected to make junta chief Brice Oligui Nguema the oil-rich central African country's first elected leader since his 2023 coup.

Mr. Oligui, the general who led the August 30, 2023, putsch that ended 55 years of iron-fisted dynastic rule by the Bongo family, who were accused of looting Gabon's wealth.

"I am very confident. May the best man win," said Oligui, who has been leading in opinion polls, as he cast his ballot alongside first lady Zita at a school in the centre of the capital Libreville before a media scrum of clicking cameras.

Snaking queues were seen outside polling stations in the seaside city as voting got under way in bright sunshine which followed a stormy night.

Aurele Ossantanga Mouila, 30, voted for the first time ever after finishing his shift as a croupier in a casino.

"I did not have confidence in the earlier regime," he said.

Pensioner Eugenie Tchitembo Onanga, 68. insisted of Oligui that "everyone will vote for him, I assure you. It's God's choice."