Abel Goumba
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Abel Nguéndé Goumba (born September 18 1926) is a Centroafrican political figure. He was most recently the Vice President of the Central African Republic under François Bozizé from December 2003 until March 2005. He was born in Grimari, Ouaka region in the Oubangi-Chari French colony which is now the Central African Republic.
He was vice-president of the government council from 1957 to 1958, president of the government council during 1958, and prime minister from 1958 until 1959. He was defeated in a political power struggle by David Dacko in 1959 and then became a minor opposition party leader, running for president five times since 1980, though always getting less than 10% of the vote. He was in exile in France from 1960 until 1980. Even after his return to the Central African Republic, he was occasionally arrested for political activity. He feuded with all of Central African Republic's presidents until 2003 and was declared by them to be a national traitor.
He was appointed prime minister again in 2003 after a coup ousted the previous government. He has stressed the importance of governing without corruption. On December 12, 2003 he was made Vice-President, being replaced as PM by Célestin Gaombalet.
He was a candidate in the presidential election which was held on March 13, 2005. Though he was not expected to win, his showing was even less than expected, as he received seventh place and 2.5% of the vote. He was one of the five candidates initially approved by the transitional constitutional court on December 30, 2004; seven other candidates were excluded, although six of them were later allowed to run. Shortly after the elections were held, but before the results became available, Bozizé dismissed him from the vice-presidency, and the position was abolished.