Gabonese Parliament approves revision of Constitution

Libreville, Gabon (PANA) – Gabonese Senators and MPs have approved a bill on the review of the country's constitution, but the opposition immediately denounced it as the road to dictatorship.

Voting was 177-16, official sources told PANA on Wednesday in Libreville, and the chairman of the opposition national Union, Zacharie Myboto, said “several clauses pave way for dictatorship”.

“Since the collapse of democracy noted during the revision of the 2003 Constitution, the Gabonese fundamental law has gone from bad to worse,” he said, adding that the revision gave the executive “absolute power”.

In 2003, the Gabonese Parliament amended the constitutional which particularly established a poll of two rounds for all political elections and allows the president to stand for more than two terms.

The bill, amended by 2/3 majority of the votes at the request of Gabonese president Ali Bongo Ondimba, is aimed at “correcting several weaknesses of the current constitution …,” Luc Marat Abila of the ruling Gabonese Democratic Party (PDG), said the secret vote.

“The revision is justifiable, for it solves the problem about the electoral contention, the duration of the transition or the conditions for the eligibility of the president,” he said.
-0- PANA LAW/SSB/IBA/MSA/MA 29Dec2010