of parties supporting President Bongo. A youth movement, the Movement of the Children of Bongo Ondimba, then asked Mba Abessole to serve as Bongo's campaign manager for the 2005 presidential election; it also wanted him to become Prime Minister if Bongo won the election. Bongo accepted this as a possibility, and on June 26, 2004, Mba Abessole said that he was willing to take up the responsibility. However, others in the Presidential Majority resisted the idea of Mba Abessole becoming Bongo's campaign manager. He and Eyeghe Ndong faced each other again in the December 2006 parliamentary election, this time with Eyeghe Ndong holding the position of Prime Minister, and Mba Abessole was defeated. President Bongo said that holding a ministerial position was not dependent on winning a parliamentary seat and that Mba Abessole could remain a member of the government. In the new government, announced on January 25, 2007, Mba Abessole was moved to the position of Deputy Prime Minister at the Presidency in charge of Recasting, Human Rights, the Coordination of Great Work and Revolving Festivals. In a Senate by-election held on July 1, 2007, Mba Abessole was elected to the first seat from the second arrondissement of Libreville, which had been vacated by Eyeghe Ndong. Mba Abessole was the only candidate for the seat and received the votes of all of the 20 electors in this indirect election. In the government named on December 28, 2007, he was moved to the position of Deputy Prime Minister for Culture, Arts, Community Education, Refoundation and Human Rights. Mba Abessole headed the RPG's list in the second arrondissement of Libreville during the April 2008 local elections. Subsequently he filed an unsuccessful challenge with the Constitutional Court related to the election. Following Omar Bongo's death in June 2009, the RPG held its 11th Extraordinary Congress on 11 July 2009 and nominated Mba Abessole, its President, as the party's candidate for the 30 August 2009 presidential election. He was immediately backed by three other parties: the National Recovery Movement (MORENA) and the National Rally of Woodcutters (RNB), both part of the Presidential Majority, as well as the Party of Equal Opportunity (PEC), an opposition party. Mba Abessole was then excluded from the government appointed on 22 July 2009 under Prime Minister Paul Biyoghé Mba. Together with several other candidates, Mba Abessole was present at a banned demonstration calling for the resignation of PDG