section_path: Background
section_name: Background
paragraph_text: Background
  
  In August 2023, a general election was held, where incumbent president Ali Bongo won a third term with 64% of the votes. The results were heavily controversial and disputed and four days later, the Gabonese Army and the Gabonese Republican Guard, led by Brigadier General Brice Oligui Nguema, who was a cousin of Bongo, led a coup d'état which ousted and arrested Bongo and his government, annulled the election results, and dissolved all state institutions. The military assumed control of the country and established a junta with Nguema as transitional president.
  
  On 13 November, the junta promised free and fair elections to be held. Nguema and the junta promised to return power to civilians at the end of a two year military transition. However in early March 2025 he resigned from the military and presented himself as a civilian and therefore eligible to run as a candidate.
  
  On 9 January 2025, Oligui announced that the country would hold a presidential election on 22 March 2025. This decision followed the adoption of a new constitution in November 2024, which establishes a presidential system with term limits and stricter eligibility requirements. However, on 22 January, the government announced that the election would be held on 12 April 2025. The date was six months earlier than the transition arrangement allowed for.
  
  On 20 January, the Transitional Parliament approved a new electoral code, allowing members of the security forces and magistrates to run for office and reserving two seats in parliament for members of the Gabonese diaspora. An age limit of 70 was set for president, barring the most well-known opposition candidates. It also allowed dual nationals to become candidates except in presidential elections, without having to renounce their other nationality and moved the responsibility of organizing elections from local governments to the interior ministry.
  
  Applications were submitted between 27 February and 8 March 2025.