Ali Bongo Ondimba
| Ali Bongo Ondimba | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| President of Gabon | |
|
Assumed office 16 October 2009 |
|
| Prime Minister |
Paul Biyoghé Mba Raymond Ndong Sima Daniel Ona Ondo Emmanuel Issoze-Ngondet |
| Preceded by | Rose Francine Rogombé (Acting) |
| Personal details | |
| Born |
Alain Bernard Bongo 9 February 1959 Brazzaville, French Equatorial Africa (now Congo-Brazzaville) |
| Political party | PDG |
| Spouse(s) | Sylvia Valentin |
| Children | Malika Noureddin Jalil Bilal |
| Alma mater | Pantheon-Sorbonne University |
| Religion | Islam |
| Signature |  |
Ali Bongo Ondimba (born Alain Bernard Bongo; 9 February 1959) is a Gabonese politician who has been President of Gabon since October 2009.
Bongo is the son of Omar Bongo, who was President of Gabon from 1967 until his death in 2009. During his father's presidency, he was Minister of Foreign Affairs from 1989 to 1991 and represented Bongoville as a Deputy in the National Assembly from 1991 to 1999; subsequently he was Minister of Defense from 1999 to 2009. He was the candidate of the Gabonese Democratic Party (PDG) in the August 2009 presidential election, which followed his father's death. According to official results, he won the election with 42% of the vote. Bongo is also President of the PDG.
Ali Bongo was born in Brazzaville, as the son of Albert-Bernard Bongo (later Omar Bongo Ondimba) and Josephine Kama (later Patience Dabany). Being conceived 18 months before Albert-Bernard's marriage, he is widely rumoured to be Bongo's adopted son, a claim that he dismisses. After studying law, he entered politics, joining the PDG in 1981; he was elected to the PDG Central Committee at the party's Third Extraordinary Congress in March 1983. Subsequently he was his father's Personal Representative to the PDG and in that capacity he entered the PDG Political Bureau in 1984. He was then elected to the Political Bureau at an ordinary party congress in September 1986.
Bongo held the post of High Personal Representative of the President of the Republic from 1987 to 1989. In 1989, his father appointed him to the government as Minister of Foreign Affairs and Cooperation, replacing Martin Bongo. He was considered a reformist within the ruling PDG in the early 1990s. In the 1990 parliamentary election (the first election after the introduction of multiparty politics), he was elected to the National Assembly as a PDG candidate in Haut-Ogooué Province. After two years as Foreign Minister, a 1991 constitutional amendment setting a minimum age of 35 for ministers resulted in his departure from the government.
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