2023-05-01 23:59:09
Opponents Louis Gaston Mayila and Paul Marie Gondjout went to the presidential palace on the Libreville seaside on Monday to “discuss” with President Ali Bongo Ondimba a few months before the next general elections (presidential, legislative and local).
« It’s been so long since I’ve seen the president. Today I had this opportunity. I opened my heart to him. I told him what I thought of the situation. Subjects of general interest were discussed. In principle, these aren’t things you show off… But I told him what I thought. I answered his questions. I believe that the work that awaits us is immense and it is up to everyone to work on it with their means and the dispositions that are theirs. said Louis Gaston Mayila, President of the Union for the New Republic (UPNR). Aged 76, Me Mayila, a lawyer by training, is one of Gabon’s oldest political leaders. He was minister several times under Omar Bongo before leaving to join the opposition.
« This is an opportunity for me as President of the initial National Union to meet the Head of State a few weeks following the political consultation, to discuss the central question at our level of proportional representation in the appointment of the members of the office local councils but also to speak regarding the democratic problems in our country especially the opening of the democratic game to avoid that this one is recruited and closed around a single entity and that this game can really open because it is the basis for solving the problems of our country. The President of the Republic was very attentive to what I told him and I think that it must often be this way to be able to speak with the opposition. Gabon must be in Central Africa and in Africa in general a country which is really in the opening of the democratic game. That’s what we’re asking for and it’s soothing. If we want to have peaceful elections, we have to talk to each other, things have to be said clearly in complete transparency. That’s what we wanted to do today “, for his part declared Paul Marie Gondjout, president of the initial National Union (UNI).
Considered a young wolf in Gabonese political life, Paul Marie Gondjout cut his teeth in the National Union (UN), one of the main opposition parties. The party was created in February 2010 in the wake of the contestation of Ali Bongo’s victory in the 2009 presidential election.
In 2020, Zacharie Myboto, the president of the National Union is retiring. A pitched battle begins for his succession. In November 2021, Paulette Missambo was elected president of the party. His challenger to the presidency of the party, Paul Marie Gondjout congratulates him. However, a few months later, contesting the managerial methods of the new president of the National Union, Mr. Gondjout finally decided to create the initial National Union, whose headquarters is where the National Union was enthroned.
The meetings between these two leaders and Ali Bongo Ondimba who intervene in a context of pre-electoral atmosphere will not fail to fuel the debates. Some may accuse the two political leaders of having gone to the soup. Their supporters will not fail to assert democratic and republican values to justify these meetings.
The date of the next presidential election in Gabon has not yet been officially announced. Ali Bongo, 64, in power since 2009, has not yet announced that he is a candidate for his own succession but everything suggests that he will seek a 3th mandate. The constitution allows him except that the next term will be 5 years instead of 7 years as before. This modification took place following the political consultation of last February.
Carl Nsitou
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