Gabon: Former AU chief gears up to face Ali Bongo in August polls

A presidential aspirant in Gabon, Jean Ping has unveiled a community project a few months to elections.

“Gabon free from fear, Gabon free from need,” This is the slogan of the community project presented in Libreville by the presidential candidate hoping to beat the incumbent in elections scheduled for August.

Ping said he intends to reduce operating budgets of all institutions in the country. He has also promised a new Constitution that would reform the current institutions and to limit the presidential term in office to two terms if given the chance to rule.

Jean Ping égraine ses idées pour “Construire un Gabon à l'abri de la peur et du besoin”. https://t.co/iP3DRYFrHB pic.twitter.com/WAhvXZARRg

— #Gabon D'abord ! (@ysickout) May 5, 2016

“To make Gabon free from need, my priority will be well-understood to give the necessary means to our public services so that they would operate effectively and fairly in the territory.

To make Gabon free from fear, my priority will be to undertake bold reforms of our institutions with good intentions and with all the skills available,” he said.

The former chairperson of the African Union Commission, former minister of foreign affairs who once served as president of the UN General Assembly, is looking forward to create more accountability and limit presidential terms if he is given the mandate to rule

Political analysts in the country have predicted a highly contested election as the ruling Democratic Party of Gabon (DPG), is currently going through crisis with the recent departures of some of its executives.

“The election of 2009 was a contest of surprise. Such is not the case in 2016. We have an opposition structure which is tripartite. Judging by the leadership that has emerged. And if the opposition is tripartite face to a monolithic group of Bongoistes, I believe that the party has won considering the numbers. We are going to have an election not necessarily allayed, but very contested,” Dr. Modest Assecko Abagha, political ethics specialist said.

73-year old Ping who had a good working relationship with former president Omar Bongo has not been on talking terms with the former leader’s son, Ali Bongo, ever since youths attacked his house one year ago.