Gabon has voted in its first legislative and local elections since the 2023 military coup that ended the Bongo family’s long political dominance, marking another step in the country’s transition after the seizure of power.

The AP report says more than 900,000 Gabonese were eligible to elect National Assembly members and local councilors. Polling closed on Saturday evening, with counting beginning immediately at each station and first results expected on Sunday. That detail indicates an election administration trying to move quickly from voting to tabulation even as the political meaning of the contest remained large.

President Brice Clotaire Oligui Nguema, who led the coup against Ali Bongo Ondimba and then won the April presidential election, has presented the vote as part of a return to constitutional democracy. The legislative and local elections are therefore more than routine municipal contests. They are a test of whether the post-coup order can be converted into a functioning civilian political system.

The voting itself was mostly peaceful, according to AP, though there were localized disruptions. In Ntoum, a suburb of Libreville, voting was canceled in one constituency because of tensions between candidates. In the capital, rain delayed the start slightly, but turnout appeared steady once polls opened.

The political competition centers on two main forces. One is the Gabonese Democratic Party, the old ruling party that dominated politics for decades before the coup. The other is the Democratic Union of Builders, a party founded only three months earlier by Oligui Nguema. That contrast captures the current tension in Gabonese politics: an old system under strain and a new one still being built.

The results matter because the National Assembly and local councils will shape the post-coup institutional order. The local elections also carry indirect importance, because councilors will help elect senators, mayors and regional assembly leaders. Even though the constitution gives parliament limited power under the current presidential system, the composition of these bodies will still affect how politics is organized at ground level.

AP notes that Gabon’s new electoral code had already stirred controversy by allowing military personnel to run, including Oligui Nguema in the presidential election. That background suggests the transition has not been free of dispute, even if the vote itself was mostly orderly.

Economic issues remain central too. Oligui Nguema has promised to diversify Gabon’s oil-dependent economy, reform education and reduce youth unemployment, which is especially high among graduates. Infrastructure and basic services, including roads and water supply, remain major complaints.

A second round of voting is scheduled for October 11 in constituencies where no candidate wins an absolute majority. That means the political picture is still incomplete. But the first round already shows that Gabon is trying to turn a military intervention into an electoral process, with the country’s next institutions now taking shape in public view.