Gabon Coup Leader Launches New Party to ‘Rebuild’ Politics

Brice Oligui Nguema, the military leader who seized power in Gabon’s August 2023 coup, has launched a new political party aimed at reshaping the country’s future and moving beyond decades of Bongo family rule.

The new party, the Democratic Union of Builders (UDB), was unveiled on Saturday with a vision to unite and transform the nation. In its founding statement, the party said it “embodies a shared desire to rebuild the Gabonese social contract after the brilliant presidential victory that ended more than 50 years of government by the Bongo dynasty.”

“It’s motto — inclusion, development, happiness — conveys a simple ambition: to unite, transform, and elevate Gabon,” the statement added.

Nguema, a former general who overthrew Ali Bongo, son of longtime leader Omar Bongo, won the April presidential election with nearly 95 percent of the vote. Despite the landslide, international observers noted no major irregularities.

Thousands of supporters gathered for the party’s inaugural congress, including several former loyalists of the ousted regime. The long-dominant Gabonese Democratic Party (PDG), closely tied to the Bongo family, had shaped the country’s politics for decades.

Breaking from that legacy, Nguema said: “The country went through 50 years of politics where leaders were instrumentalised by their political party. I don’t want to indoctrinate anyone. I don’t want to create a party that instrumentalises elections.”

He pledged to introduce a primary system to allow party members to choose candidates democratically, signaling a shift from the centralized power structures of the past.