Nineteen months after overthrowing President Ali Bongo, whose family ruled Gabon for more than half a century, Nguema, 50, has pitched himself as a change agent cracking down on the corrupt old guard.
In the capital, Libreville, turnout appeared higher than during the 2023 election that precipitated the coup, when Bongo was named winner of a third term in a process the opposition denounced as fraudulent.
Casting his ballot at a school in the city centre, Nguema said the line outside was evidence that “Gabonese have regained confidence in the election”, adding that it was “transparent”.
Lionel Ekambou, a nurse, woke up early Saturday to vote for Nguema, who has been interim leader since spearheading the coup as an army general.
“His social project meets my expectations and, I am convinced, will contribute to building a better future,” the 28-year-old said.
Criss-crossing the country in a baseball cap bearing his “We Build Together” slogan, Nguema vowed to diversify the oil-reliant economy and promote agriculture, industry and tourism in a country where a third of the population lives in poverty.
Yet not everyone believes Nguema, a former aide-de-camp for Ali Bongo’s father Omar Bongo, who served as president for more than 40 years until his death in 2009, represents a genuine break with the past.
“He sold us a dream,” Libaski Moussavou, 34, told Reuters before casting his ballot, accusing Nguema of surrounding himself with Bongo-era holdovers “whom the Gabonese people decried”.
Nguema’s main challenger is Alain Claude Bilie By Nze, who was serving as prime minister under Ali Bongo before the August 2023 coup, the eighth in West and Central Africa since 2020.

Nze, 57, voted Saturday in his hometown of Makokou. In a video sent to the media by his campaign, he expressed concern that unused voter cards left at polling stations could be used to stuff ballot boxes.