Gabon: massive “yes” victory in the referendum on the new Constitution

The Gabonese overwhelmingly validated with 91.8% “yes” the new Constitution drafted by the military regime of General Brice Clotaire Oligui Nguema.

Crucial issue of this consultation carried by the new strong man of the country, the participation rate rose to 53.54% – well below the first estimates (71%) –, according to provisional data published Sunday by the Ministry of the Interior.

And total of 868,115 voters were called on Saturday to cast a green ballot for “yes” or red for “no” during the voting day, presented by the government as a “historic moment”, a little over a year after the putsch which ended 55 years of rule by the Bongo family.

Oligui Nguema does not hide his presidential ambitions

Once the final results are confirmed par the Constitutional Court, the next step will be the holding of a presidential election, currently scheduled for August 2025, to put a definitive end to the transition. General Oligui Nguema has promised to return power to civilians, but he does not hide his presidential ambitions by also promising a “rise towards happiness”. “We are here to build the country and this country, we will the build together,” he declared Friday to applause as he inaugurated a market in Libreville.

Since Friday, the authorities have reinforced the curfew put in place since the putsch, with hours “rearranged from 24 hours to 5 a.m. throughout the period of the electoral process”. No major incidents were reported during the voting day, according to authorities and the Network Citizen Observers (ROC), a platform of local associations supported by the United Nations.

The government presented as a “guarantee of transparency” the presence of around thirty international observer missions – excluded during the presidential election of August 2023 which led to the re-election of Ali Bongo Ondimba then to his dismissal after accusations of electoral fraud and embezzlement of public funds.

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If they have pu follow the progress of the vote, “the observers were not able to attend the counting process in certain offices”, according to the ROC which had deployed 250 people on the ground.

A vote in a “calm and serene atmosphere”

In accordance with the Gabonese electoral code, the ballots were incinerated in each of the polling stations after their counting. The report of the results was centralized at the ministry of the Interior which replaced the electoral authorities dissolved after the coup d'état.

The vote, organized “in a context of transition where aspirations for new governance and structural reforms have crystallized”, was held in a “calm and serene atmosphere” with a “structured and functional organization”, underlined the ROC in a statement released on Sunday.

The campaign opened at the beginning of November had been marked by lively debates. Opponents of the text denounced a text allowing a “dictatorial” regime tailor-made for the transitional president, its supporters affirming that it was necessary to move forward by voting “yes”.

Provisions set in stone

The 173 articles of the new fundamental law, the result of contributions collected in the spring during a national dialogue, establish, among other things, a seven-year mandate renewable only once, with a presidential regime with strong executive power, without a Prime Minister, and the impossibility of a dynastic transmission of power.

His second article sets in stone the accession to power of the junta led by Brice Clotaire Oligui Nguema on August 30, 2023, with the establishment of a “liberation celebration”. Article 170 exempts from prosecution and conviction “those involved in events going of August 29, 2023 at the inauguration of the president of the transition”, September 4.

Several provisions cannot be subject to any future revision. Among them: the limit of two successive presidential mandates, the method of election by direct universal suffrage or even marriage reserved for two individuals of opposite sexes. New provision, military service becomes compulsory, for women as well as for THE men.

(With AFP)