Gabonese Voters Back New Constitution

“Just for one simple reason – most of the public really like the president and to them, it’s not about what is written inside the project. [Voting ‘Yes’] means that you are for the president,” Mba Aki noted. He believes that the proposed constitution, although forward-facing, did not deliver strong reforms.

Last year, a military coup ended the 14-year rule of Ali Bongo Ondimba, who succeeded his father Omar Bongo after 42 years in power. The proposed constitution, which will effectively kickstart the return to democracy and set expectations for an August 2025 general election, has a handful of changes. One of the notable changes is that immediate relatives of a sitting president can’t contest for the office of president until the next election cycle. This is to avoid a situation similar to the dynastic Bongo rule.

In the new constitution, candidates for president must have one Gabonese-born parent, hold only a Gabon passport and be married to a Gabonese spouse. Presidents are limited to two 7-year terms, and any future attempts to change the term limits would be a treasonous crime. The proposed constitution is a hyper-presidential system, with absolute executive power wielded by the president. This effectively scraps the office of the prime minister, but a second vice president role, who is handpicked by the president and in charge of government affairs, is provided.

“There is no point to have a military coup and the reforms that will be taking place after are similar to the power allowed to the president in the previous constitution,” Mba Aki argued. He added that the proposed constitution seems perfectly tailor-made for transitional president, General Brice Oligui Nguema, who many believe will run in any upcoming election, even though he hasn’t made any public declaration to that effect. Mba Aki is one of those who believe Nguema will contest in the next election. “I don't know if that’s good news but let’s see how it goes. I know he has a lot of popularity and he may win any election without electoral fraud – I’m about 80 percent sure of that if we are speaking about today,” Mba Aki noted.

Nguema has endeared himself to the Gabonese citizenry since ousting his cousin Ondimba, renouncing his salary, putting stringent rules on the travels of government officials, and also taking on many infrastructure projects in the oil-rich country.

Here are Mba Aki’s observations of the new constitution, in parts edited for length and clarity.

OkayAfrica: What stuck out to you about this proposed constitution?

Herbert Mba Aki: First of all, I’d like to say I’m not fully satisfied with the reforms that are included in the constitution. But what stands out is that they tried to avoid power moving into one family. Another thing I found interesting is that at least they tried to have two terms.

Other than that, I think, for me, the seven years for a term is very long. I disagree with seven years for one term, I’m more interested in five [or four] years for a term.

What other immediate issues did you observe?

The president will still have a lot of powers. For example, the president has the power to dissolve the [National] Assembly, which was part of the previous constitution and is part of many constitutions all over the world, but we want that specific provision to disappear.

The other one is that the president is the chief of executive power, which means there will be no more prime minister and all decisions are being taken by the president. We used to have a president, vice president and a prime minister, but now there will be two vice presidents, one helping the president on some designated tasks, and another who will be coordinating the action of the government.

To me, I think that someone who has not been elected should not even be given a chance to decide anything regarding the country. It’s just like that position has been created by the previous government to put some of their friends in place, so that they earn a high salary for doing nothing. Gabon needs more money to invest in education and infrastructure and everything.

What are the striking differences between the previous constitution and this one?

[The main difference] is that we have agreed that we need to have term limits. Even if we don’t agree on the duration, term limit is very important. The positive thing is that, since we went through a military coup, I want to believe that most of the population of Gabon wants a better democracy. I want to believe that these new rules will be respected and not be used for political purposes or for personal purposes.

Also, I think that it will be difficult to initiate another constitutional change because presidents may not be able to change anything in the constitution from their second term. I mean, this constitution has improved based on democratic rules, but we could have done better than this.

How do you think this referendum and transition process will help democracy in Gabon?

This is a personal opinion as an observer of the political situation before and after the coup, and one of the good things that I can say for the current transitional government is that it’s inclusive. People from the opposition and civil society in the previous regime are playing a role in the current regime and those from the former regime are also present in transition.

[But] I think it’s not helping the civil society to grow, because they are almost playing the same role as the ruling party back in the days. It’s like they lose objectivity, and they agree and support the decisions being made because they are part of the system now.

That’s why many people like myself were skeptical as to why the former ruling party is still this much involved, especially those who were guilty of corruption.