Brice Nguema, the leader of the coup that ousted Gabonese President Ali Bongo, was sworn in as interim president on Monday.
Nguema was applauded by jubilant supporters at a televised ceremony designed to present the military as liberators of an oppressed society.
In the eighth coup in West and Central Africa in three years, army officers led by Nguema seized power on August 30, minutes after it was announced that Bongo had won the election. The coup leaders annulled the elections and said they were not credible.
“Like a meteorite in the dead of night, our country’s defense and security forces assumed their responsibilities.
“It was without violence, without confrontations and without bloodshed that the Committee for the Transition and Restoration of the Institutions (CTRI) changed the regime that had been confusing the power of the institutions of the Republic for several years.
“This was a flagrant disregard for democratic rules,” he said.
Mr. Nguema’s speech, repeatedly interrupted by cheers, also proposed reforms.
They included a new constitution to be adopted after a referendum, new electoral and penal codes, and measures to prioritize local banks and businesses for economic development.
He said that political exiles would be welcome and political prisoners would be released.
The ceremony was attended by various figures from the Bongo government, including the vice president and prime minister.
Bongo himself remains under house arrest.
The coup, which ended 56 years of the Bongo family’s hold on power, had drawn cheering crowds to the streets of the capital, Libreville.
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However, it has also been convicted abroad.
The Central African regional bloc (ECACS) has urged its partners, led by the United Nations and the African Union, to support a swift return to constitutional order.
At his inauguration, Nguema reiterated that his administration would organize free and fair elections, although he did not give a timetable.
He had previously said the junta would proceed “quickly but surely” but warned that too much haste could lead to elections lacking credibility.
(Reuters/NAN)