1998 Gabonese presidential election

1998 Gabonese presidential election

← 1993 6 December 1998 2005 →

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

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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.^[1][2]

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.^[3]

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.^[4][5] The Gabonese Progress Party (PGP) of Pierre-Louis Agondjo Okawé supported Mamboundou.^[6]

The publication of opinion polls was prohibited by the National Communication Council during the week immediately preceding the election.^[7]

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.^[8][9] 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.^[9] Following the election, he alleged that commandos sent by the government tried to kill him on 12 December 1998.^[10] While Mamboundou's call for people to stay at home was mostly ignored in Libreville, Port-Gentil was reportedly "paralysed".^[11]

Jean-François Ntoutoume Emane was Bongo's campaign manager during the election, and he was subsequently appointed as Prime Minister in January 1999.^[12]