Gabon
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the flag
Gabon is a state in west central Africa sharing borders with Equatorial Guinea to the northwest, Cameroon to the north, and with the Republic of the Congo curving around the east and south. The Gulf of Guinea, an arm of the Atlantic Ocean is to the west. It covers a land area of nearly 270,000 km² and has an estimated population of 1,500,000. Its capital and largest city is Libreville.
Republique Gabonaise
Since its independence from France on August 17, 1960, Gabon has been ruled by three presidents. In the early 1990s, Gabon introduced a multi-party system and a new democratic constitution that allowed for a more transparent electoral process and reformed many governmental institutions. Gabon is also a non-permanent member of the United Nations Security Council for the 2010-2011 term. The small population density together with abundant natural resources and foreign private investment have helped make Gabon one of the most prosperous countries in the region, with the highest HDI in Sub-Saharan Africa.
Nationale Assemblee
The earliest inhabitants of the area were Pygmy peoples. They were largely replaced and absorbed by Bantu tribes as they migrated.
In the 15th century, the first Europeans arrived. The nation's present name
originates from "Gabão", Portuguese for "cloak", which is roughly the shape of
the estuary of the Komo River by Libreville. French explorer Pierre Savorgnan de
Brazza led his first mission to the Gabon-Congo area in 1875. He founded the
town of Franceville, and was later colonial governor. Several Bantu groups lived
in the area that is now Gabon when France officially occupied it in 1885.
In 1910, Gabon became one of the four territories of French Equatorial Africa, a
federation that survived until 1959. These territories became independent on
August 17, 1960. The first president of Gabon, elected in 1961, was Léon M’ba,
with Omar Bongo Ondimba as his vice president. French interests were decisive in
selecting the future leadership in Gabon after Independence; French logging
interests poured funds into the successful election campaign of M'ba, an 'evolué'
from the coastal region.
After M'ba's accession to power, the press was suppressed, political
demonstrations banned, freedom of expression curtailed, other political parties
gradually excluded from power and the Constitution changed along French lines to
vest power in the Presidency, a post that M'ba assumed himself. However, when
M'ba dissolved the National Assembly in January 1964 to institute one-party
rule, an army coup sought to oust him from power and restore parliamentary
democracy. The extent to which M'ba's dictatorial regime was synonymous with
"French Interests" then became blatantly apparent when French paratroopers flew
in within 24 hours to restore M'ba to power.
After a few days of fighting, the coup was over and the opposition imprisoned,
despite widespread protests and riots. The French government was unperturbed by
international condemnation of the intervention; and paratroops still remain in
the Camp de Gaulle on the outskirts of Gabon's capital. When M'Ba died in 1967,
Bongo replaced him as president.
In March 1968, Bongo declared Gabon a one-party state by dissolving the BDG and
establishing a new party—the Parti Democratique Gabonais (PDG). He invited all
Gabonese, regardless of previous political affiliation, to participate. Bongo
sought to forge a single national movement in support of the government's
development policies, using the PDG as a tool to submerge the regional and
tribal rivalries that had divided Gabonese politics in the past. Bongo was
elected President in February 1975; in April 1975, the position of vice
president was abolished and replaced by the position of prime minister, who had
no right to automatic succession. Bongo was re-elected President in both
December 1979 and November 1986 to 7-year terms.
Economic discontent and a desire for political liberalization provoked violent
demonstrations and strikes by students and workers in early 1990. In response to
grievances by workers, Bongo negotiated with them on a sector-by-sector basis,
making significant wage concessions. In addition, he promised to open up the PDG
and to organize a national political conference in March–April 1990 to discuss
Gabon's future political system. The PDG and 74 political organizations attended
the conference. Participants essentially divided into two loose coalitions, the
ruling PDG and its allies, and the United Front of Opposition Associations and
Parties, consisting of the breakaway Morena Fundamental and the Gabonese
Progress Party.
St Michael
The April 1990 conference approved sweeping political reforms, including creation of a national Senate, decentralization of the budgetary process, freedom of assembly and press, and cancellation of an exit visa requirement. In an attempt to guide the political system's transformation to multiparty democracy, Bongo resigned as PDG chairman and created a transitional government headed by a new Prime Minister, Casimir Oye-Mba. The Gabonese Social Democratic Grouping (RSDG), as the resulting government was called, was smaller than the previous government and included representatives from several opposition parties in its cabinet. The RSDG drafted a provisional constitution in May 1990 that provided a basic bill of rights and an independent judiciary but retained strong executive powers for the president. After further review by a constitutional committee and the National Assembly, this document came into force in March 1991.
Opposition to the PDG continued after the April 1990 conference, however, and in
September 1990, two coup d'etat attempts were uncovered and aborted. Despite
anti-government demonstrations after the untimely death of an opposition leader,
the first multiparty National Assembly elections in almost 30 years took place
in September–October 1990, with the PDG garnering a large majority.
Following President Omar Bongo's re-election in December 1993 with 51% of the
vote, opposition candidates refused to validate the election results. Serious
civil disturbances led to an agreement between the government and opposition
factions to work toward a political settlement. These talks led to the Paris
Accords in November 1994, under which several opposition figures were included
in a government of national unity. This arrangement soon broke down, however,
and the 1996 and 1997 legislative and municipal elections provided the
background for renewed partisan politics. The PDG won a landslide victory in the
legislative election, but several major cities, including Libreville, elected
opposition mayors during the 1997 local election.
Facing a divided opposition, President Omar Bongo coasted to easy re-election in
December 1998, with large majorities of the vote. While Bongo's major opponents
rejected the outcome as fraudulent, some international observers characterized
the results as representative despite many perceived irregularities, and there
were none of the civil disturbances that followed the 1993 election. Peaceful
though flawed legislative elections held in 2001-2002, which were boycotted by a
number of smaller opposition parties and were widely criticized for their
administrative weaknesses, produced a National Assembly almost completely
dominated by the PDG and allied independents. In November 2005, President Omar
Bongo was elected for his sixth term. He won re-election easily, but opponents
claim that the balloting process was marred by irregularities. There were some
instances of violence following the announcement of Omar Bongo's win, but Gabon
generally remained peaceful.
National Assembly elections were held again in December 2006. Several seats
contested because of voting irregularities were overturned by the Constitutional
Court, but the subsequent run-off elections in early 2007 again yielded a PDG-controlled
National Assembly.
On June 8, 2009, President Omar Bongo died of cardiac arrest at a Spanish
hospital in Barcelona, ushering in a new era in Gabonese politics. In accordance
with the amended constitution, Rose Francine Rogombe, the President of the
Senate, became Interim President on June 10, 2009. The first contested elections
in Gabon’s history that did not include Omar Bongo as a candidate were held on
August 30, 2009 with 18 candidates for president. The lead-up to the elections
saw some isolated protests, but no significant disturbances. Omar Bongo’s son,
ruling party leader Ali Bongo Ondimba, was formally declared the winner after a
3-week review by the Constitutional Court; his inauguration took place on
October 16, 2009.
Presidental family compound
The court's review had been prompted by claims of fraud by the many opposition candidates, with the initial announcement of election results sparking unprecedented violent protests in Port-Gentil, the country's second-largest city and a long-time bastion of opposition to PDG rule. The citizens of Port-Gentil took to the streets, and numerous shops and residences were burned, including the French Consulate and a local prison. Officially, only four deaths occurred during the riots, but opposition and local leaders claim many more. Gendarmes and the military were deployed to Port-Gentil to support the beleaguered police, and a curfew was in effect for more than 3 months.
A partial legislative by-election was held in June 2010. A newly created
coalition of parties, the Union Nationale (UN), participated for the first time.
The UN is composed largely of PDG defectors who left the party after Omar
Bongo’s death. Of the five hotly contested seats, the PDG won three and the UN
won two; both sides claimed victory.
Gabon is a republic with a presidential form of government under the 1961
constitution (revised in 1975, rewritten in 1991, and revised in 2003). The
president is elected by universal suffrage for a 7-year term; a 2003
constitutional amendment removed presidential term limits and facilitated a
presidency for life. The president can appoint and dismiss the prime minister,
the cabinet, and judges of the independent Supreme Court. The president also has
other strong powers, such as authority to dissolve the National Assembly,
declare a state of siege, delay legislation, and conduct referenda.
The country has a bicameral legislature with a National Assembly and Senate. The
National Assembly has 120 deputies who are popularly elected for a 5-year term.
The Senate is composed of 102 members who are elected by municipal councils and
regional assemblies and serve for 6 years. The Senate was created in the
1990-1991 constitutional re-write, although it was not brought into being until
after the 1997 local elections. The President of the Senate is next in
succession to the President.
Post Office
In 1990 the government made major changes to Gabon's political system. A transitional constitution was drafted in May 1990 as an outgrowth of the national political conference in March–April and later revised by a constitutional committee. Among its provisions were a Western-style bill of rights, creation of a National Council of Democracy to oversee the guarantee of those rights, a governmental advisory board on economic and social issues, and an independent judiciary. After approval by the National Assembly, the PDG Central Committee, and the President, the Assembly unanimously adopted the constitution in March 1991. Multiparty legislative elections were held in 1990-91, despite the fact that opposition parties had not been declared formally legal. In spite of this, the elections produced the first representative, multiparty National Assembly. In January 1991, the Assembly passed by unanimous vote a law governing the legalization of opposition parties.
After President Omar Bongo was re-elected in a disputed presidential election in
1993 with 51% of votes cast, social and political disturbances led to the 1994
Paris Conference and Accords, which provided a framework for the next elections.
Local and legislative elections were delayed until 1996-97. In 1997,
constitutional amendments put forward years earlier were adopted to create the
Senate and the position of vice president, as well as to extend the president's
term to 7 years.
In October 2009, newly-elected President Ali Bongo Ondimba began efforts to
streamline the government. He eliminated 17 minister-level positions. He also
abolished the vice president position and reorganized the portfolios of numerous
ministries, bureaus, and directorates with the intention of reducing corruption
and government bloat. In November 2009, President Bongo Ondimba announced a new
vision for the modernization of Gabon, called "Gabon Emergent." This program
contains three pillars: Green Gabon, Service Gabon, and Industrial Gabon. The
goals of Gabon Emergent are to diversify the economy so that Gabon becomes less
reliant on petroleum, to eliminate corruption, and to modernize the workforce.
Under this program, exports of raw timber have been banned, a government-wide
census was held, the work day has been changed to eliminate a long midday break,
and a national oil company was created.
For administrative purposes, Gabon is divided into 9 provinces, which are
further divided into 36 prefectures and 8 separate subprefectures. The president
appoints the provincial governors, the prefects, and the subprefects.
In provisional results, the ruling Gabonese Democratic Party (PDG) won 84 out of
120 parliamentary seats.
Gabon has a small, professional military of about 5,000 personnel, divided into
army, navy, air force, gendarmerie, and national police. Gabonese forces are
oriented to the defense of the country and have not been trained for an
offensive role. A 1,800-member guard provides security for the president.
Since independence, Gabon has followed a nonaligned policy, advocating dialogue
in international affairs and recognizing each side of divided countries. In
inter-African affairs, Gabon espouses development by evolution rather than
revolution and favors regulated free enterprise as the system most likely to
promote rapid economic growth. Gabon played an important leadership role in the
stability of Central Africa through involvement in mediation efforts in Chad,
the Central African Republic, Angola, the Republic of the Congo, the Democratic
Republic of the Congo (D.R.C.), and Burundi. In December 1999, through the
mediation efforts of President Bongo, a peace accord was signed in the Republic
of the Congo (Brazzaville) between the government and most leaders of an armed
rebellion. President Bongo was also involved in the continuing D.R.C. peace
process, and played a role in mediating the crisis in Cote d'Ivoire. Gabonese
armed forces were also an integral part of the Central African Economic and
Monetary Community (CEMAC) mission to the Central African Republic. Gabon is a
member of the United Nations (UN) and some of its specialized and related
agencies, as well as of the World Bank; the IMF; the African Union (AU); the
Central African Customs Union/Central African Economic and Monetary Community (UDEAC/CEMAC);
EU/ACP association under the Lome Convention; the Communaute Financiere
Africaine (CFA); the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC); the
Nonaligned Movement; and the Economic Community of Central African States (ECCAS/CEEAC),
among others. In 1995, Gabon withdrew from the Organization of Petroleum
Exporting Countries (OPEC). Gabon was elected to a non-permanent seat on the UN
Security Council for January 2010 through December 2011 and held the rotating
presidency in March 2010.
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Chinese Embassy
Port of Libreville
importing pipe
container transporter
railroad to the interior
colors of the flag
