Gabon has just modified its Constitution. The Parliament meeting in Congress voted without surprise with an overwhelming majority, changes in 6 articles. From now on, all political mandates are elected for a period of 5 years. The text also enshrines the principle of non-limitation of terms of office. The elections will be organized according to a one-round ballot and no longer two. There are also changes in the amount of deposits and the age of eligibility of candidates. All of this changes the rules of the game just months before the elections.
All that remains is the promulgation of President Ali Bongo for this reform, which will apply in a few months to the presidential, legislative and local elections. With the one-round ballot, the opposition will have to come together if it wants to defeat power with, as in 2016, a single candidate.
“ There needs to be agreement around a strong personality, chosen after broad consultation “, estimates Minault Zima Ebeyard. The member of the National Union wants to wait for each party to announce its candidate. ” On will see the procedure if it takes place, but it is better first that all the candidates decide so that we know who to ride with. Then, it will be necessary to adopt the principle of this single candidacy, because the question does not yet achieve consensus. “, indicates the chosen one. In the past, there was the organization of conclaves or, as in 2016, a panel of candidates and personalities to agree around a single candidate.
Since January and the creation of the Alternance 2023 platform, the main training courses have been refining their strategy on these issues. But the group broke up. Two major movements in particular, PG41 and Les Démocrates, no longer take part in the discussions. “ They are the ones who left, they are the ones who did not want to play the game. These opponents presented themselves in the service of the Statehow can we negotiate with them? asks François Ndong Obiang. The president of the Réagir party believes that the dialogue will resume if there is a real will, and if these groups “ want return to feelings of true opposition “.
In the meantime, power rubs his hands. ” He just look at the exchanges that we observed, and so I think that today the opposition is so divided that‘there To no unitary dynamic that obviously emerges within them. Our party is preparing for him serenely “Said David Ella Mintsa, spokesperson for the PDG presidential party.
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