The Gabonese authorities unveil the draft Constitution that will be put to a referendum in November

The transitional prime minister expresses his desire for “a majority to speak in favor of this text” in the vote

Oct. 22 (EUROPA PRESS) –

The transitional prime minister of Gabon, Raymond Ndong Sima, has unveiled the draft of the new Constitution that will be submitted to a referendum on November 16, while asking the population to study it and “discuss” it to “vote their conscience” during said day.

“It is my duty to make it available to the general public,” Sima said in a statement published by his office on the social network Facebook, along with a link where you can access the document, with more than 170 articles and already approved by the Government.

“I ask everyone to be aware of it and discuss it wherever necessary,” he said, before expressing his hope that Gabonese would come to vote on November 16 “for the country.” “I hope that a majority will vote in favor of this text on that occasion,” he argued.

The transition prime minister recalled that the text derives from the process opened after the 2023 coup d’état, following the announcement of the victory of the then president, Ali Bongo, in elections marked by irregularities, as the opposition denounced at the time. .

For this reason, he noted that the military junta created after the coup, headed by Brice Oligui Nguema, “committed to restoring the institutions to improve the governance of the State and carry out political action to benefit the general interest.”

“To this end, a national dialogue was organized,” said Sima, who stated that a Magna Carta proposal emerged from it, which was subsequently considered by the Constituent Assembly, parliament and the Government, which “finally adopted it during this month of October.”

The text contemplates the establishment of a presidential system with a term limit – an extreme that could not be revised – and some modifications in the conditions imposed to be elected to public office, including the exclusion of descendants of a president, which would have affected Bongo in 2009, when he replaced his father, Omar Bongo.

All of Bongo’s election victories were marked by allegations of fraud. The former president suffered a stroke in 2018 that took him away from the public sphere for almost a year, although he declined to step aside. Just a few months later, in January 2019, a group of soldiers staged an riot that was dismantled by the authorities.