Pierre Mamboundou was a Gabon

Gabon

Gabon , officially the Gabonese Republic is a state in west central Africa sharing borders with Equatorial Guinea to the northwest, Cameroon to the north, and with the Republic of the Congo curving around the east and south. The Gulf of Guinea, an arm of the Atlantic Ocean is to the west...

ese politician. He was President of the Union of the Gabonese People

Union of the Gabonese People

The Union of the Gabonese People is an opposition political party in Gabon. Officially registered in 1991, the current party president is Pierre Mamboundou....

 (UPG), an opposition party in Gabon, from 1989 to 2011.

ACCT career and 1989 events

Mamboundou was born in Mouila

Mouila

Mouila is the capital of the Ngounié region of Gabon. It lies on the River Ngounié and the N1 road and has a population of about 20,000 people. Its main sight is the Lac Bleu, a lake known for its bright blue water....

. He headed the commercial agency of the Office of Posts and Telecommunications from 1978 to 1979, and he worked at the Agency of Cultural and Technical Cooperation (ACCT) from 1979 to 1989; he was the ACCT's Director of External Relations from 1985 to 1989 and was based in Paris

Paris

Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...

. In Paris on 14 July 1989, he announced the foundation of the UPG, an opposition party. After being accused of organizing an October 1989 coup plot, he was convicted in absentia and sentenced to ten years in prison. He denied the accusation and said that the plot was an invention of the government. Mamboundou was also dismissed from his post at the ACCT in 1989.

Exile and 1993 return to Gabon

President Omar Bongo

Omar Bongo

El Hadj Omar Bongo Ondimba , born as Albert-Bernard Bongo, was a Gabonese politician who was President of Gabon for 42 years from 1967 until his death in office in 2009....

 said in January 1990 that Mamboundou was sending political leaflets opposing his government into Gabon. In France

France

The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...

, where Mamboundou was living, Mamboundou's lawyer requested that he be designated as a political refugee by the French Office for the Protection of Refugees and Stateless Persons on 23 February 1990. He was nevertheless arrested at his home in Chelles

Chelles, Seine-et-Marne

Chelles is a commune in the eastern suburbs of Paris, France. It is located in the Seine-et-Marne department in the Île-de-France region from the center of Paris....

, Seine-et-Marne

Seine-et-Marne

Seine-et-Marne is a French department, named after the Seine and Marne rivers, and located in the Île-de-France region.- History:Seine-et-Marne is one of the original 83 departments, created on March 4, 1790 during the French Revolution in application of the law of December 22, 1789...

 on 28 February 1990 on the grounds that he was a threat to public order due to his activities, and he was flown to Senegal

Senegal

Senegal , officially the Republic of Senegal , is a country in western Africa. It owes its name to the Sénégal River that borders it to the east and north...

 on the same day. On 18 October 1993, he announced his plans to return to Gabon within two days in order to stand as a candidate in the December 1993 presidential election

Gabonese presidential election, 1993

Gabon held a presidential election on 5 December 1993. Incumbent President Omar Bongo, in power since 1967, sought a five-year term against 12 other candidates. It was Gabon's first multiparty election, and according to official results Bongo won in the first round with 51.2% of the vote...

. He subsequently returned to Gabon from Dakar

Dakar

Dakar is the capital city and largest city of Senegal. It is located on the Cap-Vert Peninsula on the Atlantic coast and is the westernmost city on the African mainland...

 on 31 October 1993, but he was unable to return prior to the end of the period for the submission of candidacies and therefore could not run in the presidential election. Despite his earlier in absentia conviction, which had not been lifted, he was not arrested upon his return.

As an opposition leader in Gabon

Mamboundou was elected as Mayor of Ndendé

Ndende

-In the Nyanga province, Gabon:*Moukogno Ndende*Two places that have the name Ndende...

 in 1996, and he was also elected to the National Assembly

National Assembly of Gabon

The National Assembly of Gabon is the lower house of the Parliament of Gabon. It has 120 members, 111 members elected for a five year term in single-seat constituencies and 9 members appointed by the President.-Latest results:...

 in the December 1996 parliamentary election as a UPG candidate in Ngounié Province. During the parliamentary term that followed, he was President of the United Democratic Forces Parliamentary Group.

In the 6 December 1998 presidential election

Gabonese presidential election, 1998

Presidential elections were held in Gabon on 6 December 1998. Incumbent President Omar Bongo Ondimba, in power since 1967, sought a seven-year term against five other candidates...

, Mamboundou ran as the candidate of the High Council of the Resistance (HCR), a coalition of opposition parties. However, shortly before the election, HCR representative Aloise Obame accused Mamboundou of ordering the purchase of guns in Congo-Brazzaville with the purpose of using them to destabilizing Gabon. Mamboundou denounced the claim as a "pack of lies" and described himself as Bongo's only credible opponent. In the election, he officially placed second behind Bongo, receiving 16.54% of the vote. He denounced the official results as an "electoral coup d'etat" and called on the people to begin a "graduated response" by engaging in a stay at home ("ghost city") protest. Following the election, he alleged that commandos sent by the government tried to kill him on 12 December 1998. While Mamboundou's call for people to stay at home was mostly ignored in Libreville

Libreville

Libreville is the capital and largest city of Gabon, in west central Africa. The city is a port on the Komo River, near the Gulf of Guinea, and a trade center for a timber region. As of 2005, it has a population of 578,156.- History :...

, Port-Gentil

Port-Gentil

Port-Gentil or Mandji is the second-largest city of Gabon and a leading seaport. It is the center of Gabon's petroleum and timber industries. Although it lies inshore, the nearby mainland is a remote forest area and it is not connected by road to the rest of the nation...

 was reportedly "paralysed".

The UPG chose to boycott the December 2001 parliamentary election, and consequently Mamboundou lost his seat in the National Assembly. He refused to participate in the government that was formed on 27 January 2002, in which two other opposition leaders—Paul M'ba Abessole

Paul M'ba Abessole

Fr. Paul Mba Abessole is a Gabonese politician who heads the National Woodcutters' Rally – Rally for Gabon and was a leading opponent of President Omar Bongo during the 1990s...

 and Pierre-Claver Maganga Moussavou—were included. Prior to the 29 December 2002 local elections, he denounced Bongo, the government, and the ruling Gabonese Democratic Party

Gabonese Democratic Party

The Gabonese Democratic Party , is the ruling and dominant political party of Gabon. Its motto is Dialogue, Tolerance, Peace.It has held power since independence, first under Léon M'ba , then under Omar Bongo...

 (PDG) as "a trio for the destruction of Gabon".

He ran again in the 27 November 2005 presidential election

Gabonese presidential election, 2005

Gabon held a presidential election on 27 November 2005. Incumbent President Omar Bongo Ondimba, in power since 1967 , sought another seven-year term against four other candidates. According to an announcement of results by the country's interior minister, Bongo won the election with 79.2% of the vote...

 and finished second to Bongo, winning 13.6% of the vote. Unlike many other opposition leaders, Mamboundou had consistently refused to compromise with Bongo and the PDG, increasing his credibility among many Gabonese. Prior to the 2005 election, UPG Secretary-General Richard Moulomba claimed that Mamboundou was robbed of victory in 1998 and vowed that it would not happen again. The UPG said that opinion polls showed Mamboundou to be the most popular candidate, with Bongo trailing in third place. After official results were released showing Bongo with an overwhelming majority of the vote, Mamboundou and third place candidate Zacharie Myboto

Zacharie Myboto

Zacharie Myboto is a Gabonese politician and President of the National Union , an opposition party. He was the Administrative Secretary of the Gabonese Democratic Party from 1972 to 1990 and served in the government from 1978 to 2001...

 immediately denounced the results as fraudulent. He and Myboto both appealed the results to the Constitutional Court; in his appeal, Mamboundou argued that the composition of the Constitutional Court was unconstitutional and that the appeal should be judged only once that body had been "renewed". When the Court considered the appeals in early January 2006, its Commissioner for Law recommended the dismissal of Mamboundou's complaint; Mamboundou angrily declared that to be "shameful for the Republic" and walked out. Marie-Madeleine Mborantsuo, the President of the Constitutional Court, then accused Mamboundou of "public insults against judges" and "clear threats". Mamboundou's appeal was rejected by the Court, along with Myboto's.

2006–2011 events

Searching for arms, security forces entered the UPG headquarters in Awendjé on 31 March 2006 and arrested 15 members of the party. (They were later released without charge.) Mamboundou then fled to the South Africa

South Africa

The Republic of South Africa is a country in southern Africa. Located at the southern tip of Africa, it is divided into nine provinces, with of coastline on the Atlantic and Indian oceans...

n Embassy in Libreville. After leaving the embassy, he met with President Bongo on 19 April 2006; he described the meeting as historic and said that Bongo was open to dialogue. Although still an opposition leader, he subsequently faced criticism for his rapprochement with Bongo and the PDG regime; some argued that he had softened his opposition. By June 2007, he had met with Bongo five times. Bongo agreed to give him 11 billion CFA francs for the development of Ndendé.

As a representative of the opposition, Mamboundou was included on the joint majority–opposition commission on the reform of the electoral process, which began its work in May 2006 and included 12 representatives from the Presidential Majority as well as 12 from the opposition. In the December 2006 parliamentary election

Gabonese legislative election, 2006

A legislative election was held in Gabon on 17 December 2006 ....

, Mamboundou was elected to the National Assembly as the UPG candidate in Ndendé constituency, located in the Dola Department

Dola Department

Dola is a department of Ngounié Province in southern Gabon. The capital lies at Ndende....

 of Ngounié Province. In the National Assembly, he became President of the UPG Parliamentary Group after the election. Under the Constitution he could not hold more than one elective office and therefore had to step down as Mayor of Ndendé in order to retain his seat in the National Assembly. Fidèle Mouloungui Moussavou, also from the UPG, was elected to succeed him as Mayor on 21 May 2007.

On 19 July 2009, following President Bongo's death on 8 June, Mamboundou was designated as the candidate of the Alliance for Change and Restoration opposition coalition for the 30 August 2009 presidential election

Gabonese presidential election, 2009

A presidential election was held in Gabon on 30 August 2009 after the incumbent President Omar Bongo Ondimba died on 8 June 2009. While the constitution stated that Interim President Rose Francine Rogombé should organise elections within 30 to 45 days, the Constitutional Court accepted the...

. Aside from the UPG, this coalition included the National Alliance of Builders (ANB), the Union for the New Republic (UPRN), the National Rally of Woodcutters (RNB), and the Gabonese Socialist Party

Gabonese Socialist Party

The Gabonese Socialist Party is a small political party in Gabon. It was founded in 1992.Augustin Moussavou King was the party's candidate in the November 2005 presidential elections. He finished fourth out of five candidates, winning 0.33 percent of the vote....

 (PSG). Mamboundou declared that "Gabon needs another new way to govern".

During the electoral campaign, Mamboundou said on 20 August 2009 that Gabon did not need a Senate

Senate of Gabon

The Senate is the upper house of the Parliament of Gabon. It has 102 members, elected for a six year term in single-seat constituencies by local and départemental councillors...

and that he would seek the abolition of the Senate through referendum if he were elected.

Still leading the UPG, Mamboundou died suddenly on 15 October 2011 at the age of 65.