President Ali Bongo Ondimba of Gabon is confirmed as the presidential candidate for Gabon's ruling party

Gabon’s ruling party on Saturday confirmed President Ali Bongo Ondimba as its candidate for this year’s national elections, which will see him face a challenge from both the opposition and a breakaway faction of his own party.

Bongo’s bid to secure a second seven-year term in the small, oil-rich nation was formally endorsed at the annual congress of the ruling Gabonese Democratic Party (PDG), attended by thousands of supporters in the capital Libreville.

Standing before a huge banner that read “Let’s change together”, Bongo pledged “to always work for the entire Gabonese population” to build a society based “on merit”.

He then touted his achievements since taking office, highlighting improved road infrastructure and recent agricultural projects aimed at lowering the west African nation’s dependency on food imports.

He also used his speech to take a swipe at his opponents, just days after three party members were expelled for creating a breakaway group in a sign of the deep divisions plaguing the ruling party.

Bongo described the rebel members, who plan to field their own presidential candidate from the newly formed “PDG Heritage and Modernity party”, as “impostors” who sought to “destroy the nation’s unity”.

“As long as I’m here, there won’t be any chaos,” he told the crowd, insisting that the party founded by his father would always “remain whole and indivisible”.

Bongo first came to power in a disputed 2009 vote following the death of his father, Omar Bongo Ondimba, who had ruled Gabon for 42 years and was described by critics as a corrupt despot.

Anger over Bongo’s one-family rule has prompted several senior ruling party figures to defect to the opposition, including former African Union commission chief Jean Ping who also plans to run for president in the upcoming polls slated for the second half of 2016.