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Gabon

Country in central Africa, bounded north by Cameroon, east and south by the Congo, west by the Atlantic Ocean, and northwest by Equatorial Guinea.

Government

The 1991 constitution provides for a French-style executive president elected by universal suffrage for a seven-year term, renewable without limit. The legislature has two chambers: a 120-member legislature, the national assembly, popularly elected for a five-year term; and a 91-member senate, elected for a six-year term by local councillors. The president appoints and can dismiss the prime minister who presides over a council of ministers, in consultation with the president. The president can also dissolve the national assembly and conduct referenda. There is a Western-style bill of rights, and a national council of democracy oversees their guarantee.

History

Gabon was colonized by some of its present inhabitants (the Fang and the Omiéné) between the 16th and 18th centuries. Its first European visitors were the Portuguese in the late 15th century. They began a slave trade that lasted almost 400 years. In 1889 Gabon became part of the French Congo and was a province of French Equatorial Africa from 1910.

Gabon achieved full independence in 1960. There were then two main political parties, the Gabonese Democratic Bloc (BDG), led by Léon M'ba, and the Gabonese Democratic and Social Union (UDSG), led by Jean-Hilaire Aubame. Although the two parties were evenly matched in popular support, on independence M'ba became president, and Aubame foreign minister, as the two party leaders agreed that Gabon was too small to support a two-party system.

In 1964, M'ba called a general election after the UDSG resisted formal merger with the larger BDG. Before the elections M'ba was deposed in a bloodless military coup by supporters of Aubame but was restored to office within 24 hours with French help. Aubame was tried and imprisoned for treason. The UDSG was outlawed, and most of its members joined the BDG.

Bongo's presidency

In 1964 M'ba, although in failing health, was re-elected. He died in 1967 and was succeeded by the vice-president, Albert-Bernard Bongo who, in 1968, established the Parti Démocratique Gabonais (PDG; Gabonese Democratic Party) as the only legal party. Bongo was re-elected in 1973 and was converted to Islam, changing his first name to Omar.

Gabon's reserves of uranium, manganese, and iron make it the richest country per head in Black Africa, and both M'ba and Bongo successfully exploited these resources, gaining control of the iron-ore ventures once half-owned by the Bethlehem Steel Corporation of the USA, and concluding economic and technical agreements with China as well as maintaining ties with France.

Although President Bongo operated an authoritarian regime, Gabon's prosperity diluted any serious opposition to him. He was re-elected (unopposed) in 1979 and 1986, and coup attempts against him in 1989–90 were defeated by loyal troops. In early 1990, there were widespread strikes and student demonstrations for wage increases and political liberalization. In response, President Bongo agreed to political reforms and in 1990 the first multiparty elections since 1964 were won by the PDG despite claims of widespread fraud. The constitution was changed in 1991 to legalize opposition parties and to establish a bill of rights. Nevertheless Bongo won further presidential elections in 1993, 1998, and 2005, with large majorities. The authoritarian PDG won large majorities in parliamentary elections although the opposition claimed that the elections had not been free and fair.