The Gabonese Democratic Party (PDG) does not mess with internal discipline. All senators and deputies who did not vote or abstained during the adoption of the law decriminalising homosexuality in the country were punished, the party’s Standing Disciplinary Committee announced on 1 August. The 25 executives who received a formal notice and a warning with an entry in the file were either.
The decision fell like a blast, never before has the Gabonese Democratic Party (PDG), in power for 52 years, been so severe against its main tenors. On the list of sanctioned heavyweights is the current vice-president of the Senate, Léonard Andjembé, who is nevertheless considered one of the guardians of the temple and has held the post for about ten years. With him are several members of the bureau of the National Assembly, including Malika Bongo Ondimba, the eldest daughter of the head of state, and Idriss Ngari, another cacique from the time of Omar Bongo.
Julien Nkoghe Békalé, Prime Minister at the time of the vote on 25 June, was also sanctioned for failing to organise consultations of the party’s parliamentary groups in the National Assembly and the Senate. He was dismissed from his post as prime minister just after the vote on the controversial law, despite the fact that he presented himself as the main defender of the homosexual cause in Gabon.
David Ella Mintsa, one of the party’s spokespersons is also sanctioned, as is the current Minister of Foreign Affairs, Pacôme Moubelet Boubeya. A party official explains that they will all remain in office but that they will no longer be given priority for any appointment and face disbarment if they re-offend.