1998 Gabonese presidential election

1998 Gabonese presidential election

6 December 1998

Candidate Omar Bongo Pierre Mamboundou Paul Mba Abessole Party PDG UPG RNB Popular vote 211,955 52,278 41,701 Percentage 66.88% 16.50% 13.16%

President before election Omar Bongo PDG Elected President Omar Bongo PDG

Presidential elections were held in Gabon on 6 December 1998. Incumbent President Omar Bongo, in power since 1967, sought a seven-year term against five other candidates. It was Gabon's second multi-party presidential election and, despite low turnout and polling problems, Bongo won the election with 66.88% of the vote.

Campaign

In late July 1998, the ruling Gabonese Democratic Party (PDG) called for Bongo to run for re-election, praising him as a "trump card for the third millennium". Also in July, the opposition National Woodcutters' Rally (RNB) split into two factions, one headed by Paul Mba Abessole and one headed by Pierre-Andre Kombila, after Kombila was expelled from the party.

Pierre Mamboundou of the Union of the Gabonese People (UPG) ran as the candidate of the High Council of the Resistance, a coalition of opposition parties that included the UPG, the African Forum for Reconstruction, the Mebiame Group, MORENA–Original and the Socialist Emancipation Movement of the People. The Gabonese Progress Party (PGP) of Pierre-Louis Agondjo Okawé supported Mamboundou.

Opinion polls

The publication of opinion polls was prohibited by the National Communication Council during the week immediately preceding the election.

Results

According to final results from the Constitutional Court, Bongo won the election with 66.88% of the vote. Mamboundou officially placed second with 16.54% of the vote. Mamboundou denounced the official results as an "electoral coup d'etat" and called on the people to begin a "graduated response" by engaging in a stay at home ("ghost city") protest. Following the election, he alleged that commandos sent by the government tried to kill him on 12 December 1998. While Mamboundou's call for people to stay at home was mostly ignored in Libreville, Port-Gentil was reportedly "paralysed".

Candidate		Party	Votes	%
	Omar Bongo	Gabonese Democratic Party	211,955	66.88
	Pierre Mamboundou	Union of the Gabonese People	52,278	16.50
	Paul Mba Abessole	National Woodcutters' Rally	41,701	13.16
	Pierre-André Kombila	National Woodcutters' Rally – Democratic	4,847	1.53
	Pierre Claver Maganga Moussavou	Social Democratic Party	3,152	0.99
	Martin Edzodzomo-Ela	Independent	1,548	0.49
	Alain Engouang Nze	National Confederation of Woodcutters Associations	892	0.28
	Joseph Adrien Mabicka Maguena	Independent	527	0.17
Total			316,900	100.00
Source: African Elections Database

Aftermath

Jean-François Ntoutoume Emane was Bongo's campaign manager during the election, and he was subsequently appointed as Prime Minister in January 1999.