Gabon’s National Assembly and Senate met in Congress on Thursday to revise the country’s constitution, reduce the president’s term from seven to five years and shorten elections from two to one ballot. A change denounced by the opposition.
With the most recent constitutional revisions in 2018 introducing a two-round voting process, the changes bring all states together within five years and return all elections to a single ballot.
85% of the votes at a joint session of the National Assembly and Senate in the capital Libreville backed the proposal, “well in excess of the required qualified two-thirds majority,” according to Assembly President Faustin Boukoubi.
A section of the (currently deeply divided) opposition denounced these changes, particularly single-ballot voting, as a way to “facilitate” the “re-election” of Head of State Ali, possibly by a relative majority. Bongo Ondimba has ruled the country for over 13 years.
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After 10 days of political coordination between the majority and the opposition in February, an agreement was reached, according to Prime Minister Alain-Claude Bilie-By-Nze.
Several opposition leaders and their parties ignored the talks.
After succeeding his father Omar Bongo Ondimba, who ruled the oil-rich West African country for 41 years in 2009, Bongo, now 64, is expected to seek re-election.
In 2016, the president was re-elected by just 5,500 votes more than his opponent Jean Ping, who claimed the election was rigged.
In 2018, Bongo suffered a stroke and spent months in rehabilitation, leading the opposition to doubt his suitability to lead the country.
His political party, the Democratic Party of Gabon (PDG), has a strong majority in both houses of parliament and is urging the president to re-announce his candidacy.
This year’s elections for the president, legislature and local officials are scheduled for late August, but no date has been set.
