Civilians in Gabon are being encouraged this month to register to vote in presidential elections scheduled for August 2025, as ordered by transitional President General Brica Clotaire Oligui Nguema.
The planned elections are envisioned to end a two-year transition to civilian rule.
Voter registration began Jan. 2 and is due to conclude at the end of the month.
Gabon’s political opposition says voter registration has not been as robust as expected because civilians believe the transitional president wants to confiscate power, assertions that Nguema denies.
The elections are part of a plan for a return to constitutional order after an Aug. 30, 2023 coup that ousted longtime President Ali Bongo Ondimba.
Gabon officials say at least 300,000 new voters, who have either reached the legal voting age of 18 or who are not yet registered, are expected to be added to the 860,000 or so civilians that registered as part of Gabon’s November 16, 2024 constitutional referendum, and whose names are already in the elections database.
This week, officials of the central African nation said senior state functionaries were deployed to encourage civilians to register before the January 31 deadline.
Ministers dispatched to towns and villages this week are expected to work with voter enrollment teams and make sure civilians are formally registered as voters so they can participate in the August elections and cast ballots.
But Gabon’s opposition and civil society groups say civilians are not heeding calls by government officials to register because they are not sure Nguema is ready to hand power to civilian rule.
Cyrille Bissiengou is the deputy coordinator of Yes Volunteers, a group created in 2024 to encourage civilians to take part in Gabon’s electoral process.
Bissiengou said he is not sure that 300,000 new voters will register before the Jan. 31 deadline, as Gabon’s government expects.
Many young people told Yes Volunteers they weren’t sure about Nguemas’ willingness to hand power to civilians.
Bissiengou spoke on Gabon’s state TV on Tuesday.
Jean Remy Yama, leader of Unitary Dynamics, one of Gabon’s leading worker trade unions and member of Gabon’s senate, also expressed skepticism.
Yama said if Nguema truly wanted to hand power to civilian rule, he should have allowed Gabon’s parliament and senate to set up an independent elections management body to ensure free, fair and transparent elections.
He said by asking a minister appointed by transitional rulers to register voters and organize elections, Nguema is indicating that he wants to hold power.
Gabon’s constitution, voted in a Nov. 16 referendum to lay the groundwork for elections, bars transitional government members from running in the 2025 presidential polls but permits Nguema to run for president.
Nguema has not said whether he will be a candidate and the transitional government refutes claims the military leader is planning to maintain power.
