A nationwide strike is taking place in Gabon as some citizens agitate over the absence of their President, Ali Bongo.
President Bongo has been sick for weeks now and is currently recovering in a Moroccan hospital.
The government in Gabon last week confirmed that President Bongo suffered a stroke, after remaining silence on his illness.
Mr. Bongo was admitted at a hospital in Saudi Arabia on October 24 while attending an economic forum.
But the president’s absence sparked a political crisis requiring constitutional changes by the Gabon constitutional court.
The Constitutional Court had to modify the constitution to address the scenario of “temporary incapacity” by the head of state.
The constitution, before the amendment by the court, said only the president can authorise the vice president to organise a cabinet meeting.
The court says it had to modify that to insert the text that said “In the event of the temporary unavailability of the president… certain functions… may be carried out either by the vice president or the prime minister accordingly, on special authorisation of the Constitutional Court.”
But Gabonese on strike say the changes to the constitution must be reversed, AFP reports. The trade union alliance rather wants the president of the Senate to act as interim president.
“We don’t know exactly who is in charge of Gabon today. Let the president speak out and reassure the Gabonese people,” Louis Patrick Mombo, of trade union alliance Gabon Dynamique Unitaire is quoted as saying.
Bongo became President in 2009 taking over from his father Omar Bongo. His father had been president for more than 40 years.
Source: Africafeeds.com
