April 12, 2025 Presidential Election In Gabon: Constitutional Court Validates The Files Of Four More Candidates.

But curiously enough,   7 out of the total of 8 presidential candidates are running as independent, in a country with 105 political parties

The Constitutional Court in Gabon has validated the files of four of the 19 candidates for the April 12, 2025 presidential election that were rejected by the Electoral Commission. Among the four added candidates for the presidential election, is a female candidate, CHANING ZENABA GNINGA. She will be the only female candidate at the April 12, 2025 presidential election in Gabon. She is running as an independent.

Meanwhile the four presidential candidates added by the decision of the Constitutional Court, are:  Alain Simplice Boungoueres, Madam Chaning Zenaba Gninga, Alex Stophene Ibinga Ibinga, and Thierry Yvon Michel N’goma.

Electoral Commission

It would be recalled that the Electoral Commission for the April 12, 2025 Presidential Election in Gabon, retained only 4 out of the 23 candidates that deposited their files for the election, to effectively participate in the election. This meant that the files of 19 candidates were rejected. Without any surprise, the four candidates that had the visa of the Electoral Commission, to participate in the April 12 presidential election, included the President of the Committee for Transition and the Restoration of Institutions in Gabon, Brigadier General Brice, Clotaire Oligue Nguema. The three other candidates were Alain Claude Bilie By – Ndze (a former Prime Minister), Stephane Germain Iloko (a medical doctor), and Joseph Lapensee Essingone (of the finance sector).

Meanwhile, the candidates that were dropped by the Electoral Commission, filed appeals to the Constitutional Court, against the decision of the Commission. The Constitutional Court reportedly studied the rejected files, and validated those of four candidates, and thus brought to eight the total number of candidates that will participate in the April 12, 2025 presidential election in Gabon.

7 Out Of The 8 Candidates Are Independent Candidates

But the curious or even strange thing, about the candidates authorized to participate in the April 12 presidential election in Gabon, is that as many as seven of the eight are independent candidates. The only candidate running on the ticket of a political party is Alain Simplice Boungoueres of “Mouvement des Citoyen Gabonais’.It should be noted that the condition to run as an independent candidate in the presidential election in Gabon is not complicated. The condition in Gabon is thus unlike that of Cameroon which is too tough or complicated.

Meanwhile, the rather curious or strange fact, that seven of the eight presidential candidates for the April 12 presidential election in Gabon, are independent, has sparked a controversy that has become a topic of political debates in Gabon. How can one imagine that there are as many as 105 political parties in Gabon, and that only the candidate of one of parties has been authorized to run for the April 12 presidential election? The seven other candidates are independent! This is really unprecedented in Africa. What is then the use of political parties in Gabon?

It is not a secret, and rightly too,  that the President of the Transitional Government in Gabon, General Oligue Nguema, is strongly against the situation of the country with a population of 2 million people, having as many as 105 political parties. It is the same problem in Cameroon with close to 400 political parties. But the expectation in Gabon had been that the Government would take appropriate measures to drastically reduce the number of political parties, as Genera Oilgue Nguema himself had indicated. But for the regime, to instead treat political parties in Gabon in a way as to make them look like useless, by having a presidential election where seven out of the eight candidates are independent, is terrible! The President of the Government of Transition, General Oligue Nguema himself, sent the signal, when he declared his candidature for the April 12 presidential election, and said that he will run as an independent candidate.

Opposition Is Disappointed And Furious

It has since been coming out in political debates in the Gabonese media including Gabon 24 Tv, that, the opposition in Gabon is not only disappointed, but furious over what has happened. The opposition thinks that the decision of the Electoral Commission as well as that of the Constitutional Court, to drop all but one of the candidates of political parties, is a manipulation by the Transitional Government, which they say want General Oligue Nguema to have an easy win at the April 12 presidential election.

The opposition seemingly has a point. Political observers in Gabon say the former Prime Minister, Alain Claude Billie – By – Ndze, is in realty the only real challenger of the President of the Transitional   Government, General Oligue Nguema, in the April 12, 2025 presidential elections. The six other candidates are considered as light weights. This includes the candidate of the lone political party in the election, Alain Simplice Boungoueres, as his party is not a major political party in Gabon.

 The Hope Of The Gabonese Opposition, Dashed

When the National Dialogue held in Gabon last year, a resolution was adopted that ‘Parti Democratique Gabonais’, PDG, “Gabonese Democratic Party’, that was ousted from power in the August 30, 2023 coup d;etat, should be suspended from all elections in the country for three years. It should be noted that the PDG of the Bongo family, had been in power since 1967. There is no doubt that the Gabonese opposition parties were happy with the resolution adopted by the National Dialogue, to suspend PDG from all elections for three years.

For one thing too, the suspension of the PDG was considered by the opposition parties in Gabon, to mean that the next Civilian President of the country would come from the opposition. They were thus happy. They could not imagine that the President of the Transition, General Brice Clotaire Oligue Nguema, who got to power through the August 30, 2023 coup d’etat, and promised to hand back power to civilians within two years after a free, fair and transparent presidential election, would turn around to be a candidate in the presidential election. Worst still, all the candidacies of the flag bearers of major opposition parties in Gabon for the April 12 presidential election, have all been rejected.