Transitional leader urges voters to back draft charter, which proposes changes that include presidential term limits.

Gabon is voting in a referendum on whether to adopt a new constitution that would pave the way to democratic rule after the military deposed President Ali Bongo Ondimba last year, ending 55 years of rule by his family in the oil-rich nation.

An estimated 860,000 registered voters were expected to cast their ballots on Saturday on the draft charter, which proposes sweeping changes in the Central African nation that could prevent dynastic rule and sets presidential term limits.

The proposed constitution needs more than 50 percent of votes to be adopted.

“We have a date with history,” General Brice Oligui Nguema, the transitional president who led the coup last year, said in a post on social media platform X alongside a photo of him in civilian dress and baseball cap, with a voting card in his hand.

Nguema has been urging voters to support the new constitution, which he says embodies the military government’s commitment to charting a new course for Gabon.

He has promised to hand power back to civilians after a two-year transition but has made no secret of his desire to win the presidential election scheduled for August 2025.

The referendum is seen as a crucial first step as the country seeks to transition to democracy since Bongo’s ouster in August 2023. He had governed since 2009, taking over the presidency from his father, Omar, who died that year after ruling the country since 1967.

Bongo was overthrown moments after being proclaimed the winner in an election the army and opposition declared fraudulent.

A new constitution would introduce two-term limits on the presidency, remove the position of prime minister and recognise French as Gabon’s working language. It also says family members cannot succeed a president.

The presidential term would be set at seven years. The current charter allows for five-year terms renewable without limit.

Nathalie Badzoko, a 33-year-old civil servant, told the AFP news agency that she was voting “yes” and had faith in the military government, but admitted she had “not read the whole text” and its 173 articles.

Opponents dismissed the draft charter as tailor-made for a strongman to remain in power.

“We are creating a dictator who designs the constitution for himself,” lawyer Marlene Fabienne Essola Efountame said during a debate last Sunday, organised by state television.

Nguema, the interim leader, is a cousin of Bongo. He had served as a bodyguard to Bongo’s father and also headed the Gabonese Republican Guard, an elite military unit.

Voting began late at several polling stations in the capital, Libreville, including at the Lycee Leon M’Ba school where green – for yes – and red – for no – ballot papers were still being handed out when the polls opened at 7am (06:00 GMT), according to AFP.

The country’s 2,835 polling stations are due to remain open until 6pm (17:00 GMT).

The final results will be announced by the constitutional court, the Interior Ministry said.

The former French colony is a member of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), but its oil wealth is concentrated in the hands of a few. Nearly 40 percent of Gabonese aged 15 to 24 were out of work in 2020, according to the World Bank.

Soldiers scramble through trenches under a haze of yellow smoke, machine gunfire booms across the fields, invisible drones buzz overhead and voices scream in Ukrainian “Watch out!”

The scene could be 1,860 miles away in Ukraine’s Donbas region, but instead some 2,000 Ukrainian conscripts and veterans are training in the muddy fields of France’s eastern Marne region, where French and German armies once hammered each other during World War I. 

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The initiative is part of a European Union-funded program that has already prepared 60,000 Ukrainians for the front lines since Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022. 

For this training, the French military has tried to recreate the conditions faced by the Ukrainian forces back home, while training them on the equipment that France is providing.

This includes 128 armored vehicles for troop movements and reconnaissance, Caesar howitzers, anti-tank missile units, surface-to-air missiles and battlefield radars. 

The Anne of Kyiv brigade – named after a princess who married French King Henri I in 1051 in nearby Reims cathedral – has been training in France since September, and in the next 10 days will head to Poland before being dispatched to the front.

French officials say Ukraine needs as many as 15 new highly trained, battle-ready brigades, especially amid uncertainty over future Western military aid following the victory of Donald Trump – a strong critic of such aid – in the U.S. elections.

‘WAR FOR OUR EXISTENCE’

Most of the Ukrainians being trained here only joined the army a month before coming to France, while about 10% are veterans. Their average age is 38, but some are as old as 50.

Those who spoke to Reuters sounded apprehensive but determined to defend their country.

“Fear is part of war. For us, it’s a war for our existence and survival,” said Ukrainian Col. Dmytro Rymschyn, 38, who heads the Anne of Kyiv brigade. 

“We will soon go back to our native land and our brigade will show its competence. I believe in our victory.”

Mykhailo, 50, who left a chemical factory to join the army, was trained to lead an AMX light tank squadron.

When asked whether he hoped the war could end by year-end, he smiled awkwardly: “The hope is that it finishes before we have to go back.”

French officials said the current trainees, despite many being civilians, were learning quickly and were showing how Ukraine’s army can adapt despite shortages on the ground. 

After nine weeks of training, the Ukrainians were now able, for example, to repel an attack on their trenches and to mount a counter-attack.

French Defense Minister Sebastien Lecornu told reporters France hoped to prepare more such troops in coming months.

“There is a certain human element to all of this,” he added. “There is an exchange with people here who in several weeks will be in a combat situation on the frontline and some of them may well lose their lives.”