Albert-Bernard Bongo

ALBERT-BERNARD BONGO d2009. Gabonese politician who was the second President of Gabon for 42 years (from 1967 until his death in 2009). Omar Bongo was promoted to key positions as a young official under Gabon's first President Leon Mba in the 1960s, before being elected Vice-President in his own right in 1966. In 1967, he succeeded M'ba upon the latter's death. His political survival despite intense opposition to his rule in the early 1990s seemed to stem once again from consolidating power by bringing most of the major opposition leaders at the time to his side. The 1993 election was extremely controversial but ended with his re-election then and the subsequent elections of 1998 and 2005. His respective parliamentary majorities increased and the opposition becoming more subdued with each succeeding election. After Cuban President Fidel Castro stepped down in February 2008, he became the world's longest-ruling non-royal leader. He died in Spain aged 73 on June 8th 2009