Libreville [Gabon], September 4 : The leader of Gabon’s military junta, General Brice Nguema has been sworn in as the interim president by the country’s constitutional court during a televised ceremony on Monday, CNN reported.
Nguema, last week, led a coup that ousted President Ali Bongo Ondimba. The military takeover appears to have truncated the Bongo family’s decades-long dominance over Gabonese politics.
Bongo, 64, succeeded his father Omar Bongo, who ruled the Central African nation with an iron fist for more than four decades before his death in 2009.
Bongo, who has been in power for nearly 14 years was ahead of last week’s coup declared winner of a disputed presidential election that was marred by voting delays and internet cuts. The Bongo administration had also obstructed coverage of the vote by foreign press.
He was placed on house arrest by the junta, which also voided the election results and shut the country’s borders, triggering global condemnation of the coup.
Celebrations also broke out across the tiny nation with thousands of supporters expressing solidarity with the military. Nguema, a former bodyguard for Omar Bongo, was swiftly installed as a transitional leader.
He was inaugurated as interim president on Monday amid a military parade and cheers from his civilian supporters.
Nguema ahead of his swearing-in approved the reopening of Gabon’s borders and met with political leaders to discuss issues around reform and a possible transitional period, local media reported.
A platform of opposition parties in the country has urged the junta to resume the electoral process and conclude the vote count to pave the way to victory for opposition leader Albert Ondo Ossa, who was a runner-up in the annulled election.
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