Auguste-Célestin Gongarad Nkoua is a Congolese politician and the President of the Patriotic Union for Democracy and Progress (UPDP), a political party.
[1] Along with 300 others, he signed the petition of 7 July 1990, calling on President Denis Sassou Nguesso to convene a national conference for political reform.
In the week that followed, the discovery of a plot—which was dubbed the "Téké plot" due to the ethnicity of the alleged conspirators—to oust Sassou Nguesso was announced, and Gongarad Nkoua was arrested, along with Clement Miérassa, who had also signed the petition.
In a gesture of clemency marking the 27th anniversary of the 1963 revolution, President Sassou Nguesso granted an amnesty to Gongarad Nkoua and other political prisoners on 14 August 1990.
His decision provoked a political crisis that was resolved through the formation of an opposition-dominated power-sharing government, led by Prime Minister Claude Antoine Dacosta.
As President, Sassou Nguesso appointed Gongarad Nkoua to the government as Minister of State for Agriculture and Animal Husbandry on 2 November 1997.
[21] At the time of the January 2002 constitutional referendum, Gongarad Nkoua, who was still serving as Minister of Agriculture, headed the National Electoral Commission's operations for Ouenzé, the fifth arrondissement of Brazzaville.
At a meeting in Ouenzé on 6 January 2002, he said that the new constitution was written with "past mistakes that led the country into a vicious cycle of tribal violence" in mind, and he urged the people to vote for it, saying that it would be conducive to good governance.
[27] The council, a constitutional state institution,[28] is intended to provide advice to the government and the two houses of Parliament on economic, social, and cultural policy.
Rally of Democratic Forces (RFD) candidate Joseph Miokono Hondjuila, who had won the seat in the 1992 parliamentary election, was considered Gongarad Nkoua's main competitor.
[38] He was defeated when standing for re-election in Ngo in the July 2017 parliamentary election;[39] Elvis Digne Tsalissan Okombi won the seat in the first round with 60% of the vote.