A draft version of Gabon\u2019s future constitution was handed to transitional president, Brice Oligui Nguema, in an official ceremony at Gabon\u2019s presidential palace.<\/p>\n
The handover came a year after the military ousted President Ali Bongo, whose family had ruled the country for over 50 years.<\/p>\n
A referendum on the new constitution is due to take place before the end of the year, but the people of Gabon have little information about what it contains.<\/p>\n
Before handing over the document, the Minister of Institutional Reform summarised the main changes.<\/p>\n
These include the abolishment of the position of prime minister and seven-year term for a president, renewable once.<\/p>\n
The text said that a president attempting to amend these provisions will be found guilty of high treason.<\/p>\n
The president may dissolve parliament, but can also be impeached by members of parliament and senators in the event of high treason.<\/p>\n
The draft also says that a presidential candidate must have parents who were born Gabonese.<\/p>\n
In addition, it elevates the soldiers who overthrew the Bongo regime to the rank of “Heroes” and they will benefit from an amnesty law.<\/p>\n
The draft also enshrines marriage as the union between two people of opposite sexes.<\/p>\n
While there are many challenges still ahead, the military government has promised to hold elections in August 2025.<\/p>\n
There were scenes of jubilation on Gabon’s streets after the coup last year, with young people demanding better living conditions and a fairer distribution of the country’s wealth.<\/p>\n
While World Bank data puts Gabon\u2019s 2021 per capita income as one of the highest in sub-Saharan Africa, a third of the country’s 2.3 million people live below the poverty line.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A draft version of Gabon\u2019s future constitution was handed to transitional president, Brice Oligui Nguema, in an official ceremony at Gabon\u2019s presidential palace. The handover came a year after the military ousted President Ali Bongo, whose family had ruled the country for over 50 years. A referendum on the new constitution is due to take […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":13144,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"iawp_total_views":10,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":{"format":"standard","override":[{"template":"1","parallax":"1","fullscreen":"1","layout":"right-sidebar","sidebar":"default-sidebar","second_sidebar":"default-sidebar","sticky_sidebar":"1","share_position":"top","share_float_style":"share-monocrhome","show_featured":"1","show_post_meta":"1","show_post_author_image":"1","show_post_date":"1","post_date_format":"default","post_date_format_custom":"Y\/m\/d","show_post_reading_time":"0","post_reading_time_wpm":"300","post_calculate_word_method":"str_word_count","show_zoom_button":"0","zoom_button_out_step":"2","zoom_button_in_step":"3","show_post_tag":"1","number_popup_post":"1","show_post_related":"1","show_inline_post_related":"1"}],"image_override":[{"single_post_thumbnail_size":"crop-500","single_post_gallery_size":"crop-500"}],"trending_post_position":"meta","trending_post_label":"Trending","sponsored_post_label":"Sponsored by","disable_ad":"0","source_name":"Africa News"},"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":{"view_counter_number":"0","share_counter_number":"0","like_counter_number":"0","dislike_counter_number":"0"},"footnotes":""},"categories":[28,2362,33],"tags":[1472,181],"class_list":["post-13143","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-central-africa","category-featured","category-politics","tag-brice-oligui-nguema","tag-gabon"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13143","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13143"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13143\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13144"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13143"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13143"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13143"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}