Bongo's son to be Gabon candidate in poll

Published Jul 16, 2009

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Libreville - Gabon's ruling party will officially confirm on Sunday that Ali Ben Bongo, the son of the late president Omar Bongo, is its candidate in an August presidential poll, a party official said on Thursday.

The choice of Ali Ben Bongo among 10 candidates in the Gabonese Democratic Party (PDG) was announced late Wednesday, but the selection needs to be upheld by a party congress which has been twice delayed.

"The congress is now on Sunday," an official in the PDG headquarters said, explaining that the meeting hall would then be free and that participants would have completed other engagements.

Ali Ben Bongo, 50, was tipped as a likely PDG candidate for the succession shortly after the death of Omar Bongo Ondimba was announced on June 8, but the decision-making process was slowed down as the equatorial African country went into a month of official mourning.

Gabon is currently being ruled by Senate speaker Rose Francine Rogombe, who was swiftly sworn in as interim president on June 10 to prevent a power vacuum in the oil-rich nation of about 1,5 million people.

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