The coalition of radical opposition parties granted a press conference in Libreville over the weekend.

The Union of Forces for Alternance  « L’Union des forces pour l’alternance » (UFA), that brings together many radical opposition parties in Gabon, have been calling for a constitutional amendment  that will limit the mandate of the President of the Republic to two terms.  The opposition party leaders organized a press conference in the capital, Libreville on Friday, September 26, local press reports said.

Jules Aristide Bourdes Ogoulinguendé, President of the Congress for Democracy and Justice, one of the radical opposition parties reportedly said they want the country to maintain the Constitution of 1991 that limited to two the number of presidential terms.   Also present for the press conference was Pierre Claver Maganga Moussavou, President of the Social Democratic Party “Parti social-démocrate” (PSD.  

Apart from limiting the term of office of President to two, the opposition parties also want a two-round election for the President of the Republic. At moment in Gabon, the President of the Republic, Members of the National Assembly, municipal councilors and Senators are elected in a one-round poll.

The radical opposition parties are also fighting for reforms in the Autonomous and Permanent National Electoral Commission (CENAP), the body in charge of organizing and supervising political elections in Gabon, as well as access to public media in non-electoral periods.

The hitherto militant National Union “Union nationale” that used to be at the fore-front of the coalition of radical opposition parties was absent from the Libreville press conference. The party was reportedly dissolved in 2011. Many of its influential senior officials are said to have  joined Jean Ping, the former African Union Commission Chairperson  since his resignation from the ruling party, Gabonese Democratic Party “Parti démocratique gabonais”  (PDG).