2023-09-07 15:27:07
Raymond Ndong Sima, a virulent opponent of President Ali Bongo, was appointed Transitional Prime Minister on Thursday, according to a decree read on state television.
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Gabon’s transitional president, General Brice Oligui Nguema, on Thursday (September 7th) appointed Transitional Prime Minister Raymond Ndong Sima, an economist and virulent opponent of President Ali Bongo overthrown by the military a week ago, according to a decree read on state television.
Raymond Ndong Sima, 68, had been Prime Minister of Ali Bongo from 2012 to 2014 but had moved away from power, which he regularly accused of bad governance until he ran against the head of state in the presidential elections of 2016 and 2023. For the latter, he had withdrawn at the last moment in favor of a candidate common to the main opposition movements and parties.
Transitional government
General Oligui Nguema, who led the August 30 coup against an Ali Bongo barely proclaimed re-elected in a “fraudulent” election, according to the military, was sworn in on Monday as president of a transition period whose he did not fix the duration, and at the end of which he promised “free elections”.
On Monday, he also announced the formation of a transitional government comprising personalities from all political stripes. Then a new Constitution drawn up with the representatives of “all the living forces of the Nation”, which will be submitted to referendum, and “more respectful of democracy and human rights”.
A few minutes after the announcement of his appointment, Raymond Ndong Sima told AFP that he hoped to submit to General Oligui Nguema “within three to four days a proposal” for a transitional government.
“All political families”
“I was given a roadmap, and I will try to work in the direction of what the soldiers have decided” so that “we put all the institutions in order and in particular everything concerning the framework of the elections,” he said over the phone. “I want to consult widely” and “without haste” to “ensure that people belonging to all political families find themselves” in the government, he concluded.
A native of Woleu-Ntem province, the cradle of the majority Fang ethnic group in Gabon and one of the historical strongholds of opposition to the Bongo family, Raymond Ndong Sima is a graduate in econometrics from Paris-Dauphine University. from Paris.
On Wednesday, he announced that he would withdraw from the main platform of the former opposition, Alternance 2023, of which he was one of the tenors with five other declared presidential candidates, pointing to a “confused situation for several days”. Five of the six leaders of Alternance 2023, including himself, had ostensibly joined the new military power when the position of the last, the common candidate of Alternation 2023 for president, Albert Ondo Ossa, was not clearly expressed.
Three days ago, Raymond Ndong Sima had already told AFP the need to “discuss with the military”, recommending however that the transition should not exceed “24 months”. He then said he was “interested in the next presidential election”, in which “the military should not participate”.
On Tuesday, General Oligui Nguema announced that Ali Bongo, until then under house arrest in Libreville, “was free to move” and, “given his state of health”, to “go abroad”. for medical checks. The deposed head of state suffered a serious stroke in 2018 from which he still has physical consequences.
The coup was carried out without bloodshed, by soldiers united behind General Oligui Nguema and the heads of all army and police corps. The putschists had quickly aroused the rallying of almost all the parties of the former opposition, and part of the former majority, as well as a massive outpouring of a population thanking them for having “liberated it of 55 years of “Bongo dynasty” in power.
With AFP
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