TITLE IV. OF THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN THE EXECUTIVE AND LEGISLATIVE POWERS
Article 47
Besides cases expressly provisioned by the Constitution, the law fixes the rules concerning:
- The exercise of fundamental rights and duties of citizens;
The constraints imposed on Gabonese citizens and foreigners, over their person and their possessions, in view of public utility and in particular, national security. The conditions of nationality, the state and capacity of the people, the institution of marriage, inheritance and gifts, and the status of foreigners and immigration; The organization of the civil state; Audiovisual, cinematographic and written communication. The conditions governing the use of information technology with a view to protect a citizen’s honor and personal and familial intimacy, as well as the full exercise of a citizen’s rights; The electoral system of the National Assembly, of the Senate and the Local Councils. The organization of the judiciary, and the status of magistrates. The organization of the Ministerial and Public Offices, the declaration of the Ministerial Officers; The determination of crimes and offenses as well as their applicable punishments, the penal procedures, the penitentiary system and amnesty; The state of watch, urgency, alert and siege; The system of associations, of political parties, formations and syndicates; The basis, the rate and the means of collecting taxes of all nature, and the system of issuing currency; The general and particular statutes regarding public functions; The nationalization of private companies and the transfers of the property of enterprises from the public to the private sector; The general organization of administration and finance; The creation, the function and the independent administration of the territorial collectivities, their authorities, their resources and their basis for taxes; The conditions of all societies’ participation at the State’s capital, and the control of the State over the administration of these societies; The regulations over land, property, forest, mining, and the environment; The protection of the artistic, cultural and archeological patrimony; The protection of nature and the environment; The system governing property, real rights, and civil and commercial obligations; The loans and other financial engagements of the State; Economic and social programs; The conditions in which laws of finances of the State are presented and voted upon, and the accounts of the State are balanced; The laws of finance determining the resources and expenditures of the State within the conditions provisioned by an organic law; The policy and planning acts that fix the economic, social, cultural and national defense objectives of the State.
The law additionally determines the fundamental principles of:
- Education;
Public health; Social security; The right to work; The right to unionize including the conditions over the right to strike; Insurance and savings; The general organization of national defense and public security.
An organic law fixes the administrative organization of the Republic’s territory.
The dispositions of the present article may be clarified or supplemented by an organic law.
Article 48
All the resources and expenses of the State must, for every fiscal year, be evaluated and recorded into the annual budget, which the Government must submit to the National Assembly within forty-five (45) days after the opening of Parliament’s second ordinary session.
If the National Assembly has not decided on the annual budget after the first reading within a period of forty-five (45) days after the budget has been submitted, the Government will call upon the Senate to make a decision within twenty (20) days. The Senate will proceed with its examination of the law within the conditions provisioned in article 58a.
If, during the budgetary session, Parliament adjourns without voting in a balanced budget, the Government is authorized to reuse, by Ordinance, the preceding budget. This Ordinance may nevertheless provision, in cases of necessity, any reduction of expenditures or augmentation of revenue. At the demand of the Prime Minister, Parliament will convene within fifteen (15) days in an exceptional session for a new deliberation. If Parliament does not vote in a balanced budget by the end of their exceptional session, the budget will be definitively established by Ordinance taken by the Council of Ministers, and signed by the President of the Republic.
New revenue that may be acquired by the State, if from direct taxes, contributions or other comparable taxes, are assessed for recovery on the first of January.
The Court of Government Accountability assists Parliament and the Government in the execution of the law of finances. The drafted law of payments established by the Government, accompanied by the general declaration of compliance and the Court of Government Accountability’s general report must be submitted to Parliament, at the latest, during the first ordinary session of the second year that follows the execution of the budget concerned.
Article 49
A declaration of war by the President of the Republic must be authorized by Parliament.
Article 50
The extension of a state of emergency or a state of siege beyond fifteen (15) days must be authorized by Parliament.
Article 51
The matters other than those that are the domain of the law have a regulatory character. They are subject to decrees of the President of the Republic.
These matters may, for the application of these decrees, be the subject of orders from the Prime Minister or, under the Prime Minister’s delegation, by the relevant Ministers or other authorized administrative authorities.
Article 52
To execute its agenda the Government may, in cases of urgency, request from Parliament the authorization to enact measures normally within the domain of the law by ordinance during Parliament’s intercession.
The Ordinances are received by the Council of Ministers after notifying the Council of State, and are signed by the President of the Republic. They enter into effect at the moment of publication.
The Ordinances must be ratified by Parliament during their next session.
Parliament has the option to modify such Ordinances with amendments.
In absence of a law of ratification, the Ordinances are nullified.
Ordinances can be modified by another Ordinance or law.
Article 53
The initiative of law creation belongs to both the Government and Parliament.
Article 54
Proposed laws are deliberated in the Council of Ministers after consultation with the Council of State, and submitted to the Bureau of one of the two (2) Chambers of Parliament.
In the name of the Prime Minister, a member of Government is charged, in the applicable case, with presenting the reasoning behind proposed law, and to support the discussion before the Chambers of Parliament.
The proposal or drafting of an organic law may not be deliberated and voted upon by Parliament until after the expiration of a time period of fifteen (15) days after its submission.
Proposed laws of finances and revisions to the Constitution are submitted first to the National Assembly. Proposed laws related to local collectivities are presented first to the Senate.
All propositions of law transmitted to the Government by Parliament that has not been reviewed within sixty (60) days are automatically placed before Parliament for deliberation.
Article 55
The members of Parliament have the right to amend. Proposed law and amendments originating from Parliament are not receivable when their adoption would lead to either a reduction of public revenues, or the creation or aggravation of a public expense without the release of corresponding state funds.
Amendments may not be totally unrelated to the text they purport to amend.
If the Government requests it, the relevant Parliamentary Chamber will decide by a single vote, after a debate, on all or part of the text of the proposed amendments, and will only keep the amendments proposed or accepted by the Government.
Article 56
If it appears, over the course of the legislative procedure, that a text or an amendment is not within the domain of the law in the sense given by the aforementioned article 47, or if it oversteps the limits of legislative authority accorded to the Government by virtue of article 52, the Prime Minister or the president of the concerned Chamber at the demand of a fifth of its members, may raise the issue of inadmissibility.
In the case of disagreement, the Constitutional Court will be called. The Court will decide on the matter within eight (8) days.
Article 57
The daily agenda of Parliament will include the discussion of drafted laws submitted by the Government and of propositions of law accepted by it.
The Government is informed of the work of the Chambers and their commissions from the daily agenda.
The Prime Minister and other members of the Government have the right of access and speech before the Chambers of Parliament and their commissions. They are heard at their request or the request of the Parliament.
Article 58
An expedited vote on a proposed law may be demanded either by the Government or by the members of Parliament with an absolute majority. With regard to expedition of organic laws, the usual delay of fifteen (15) days will be shortened to eight (8) days.
Article 58a
All drafted or proposed laws are successively examined in the two Chambers of Parliament in view of the future adoption of an identical text.
If a bill is not agreed upon and adopted in the two Chambers following a single reading, the Prime Minister may invoke a commission of members from both Chambers, who will be charged with proposing a revised text after discussion.
If the commission does not settle on an agreed upon text, the Government will call upon the National Assembly for a definitive decision.
If the commission does adopt a common text, the revised bill must be adopted by each Chamber separately to become law.
The procedure related to the adoption of a budget is identical to that of an ordinary law, within the particular conditions outlined in article 48 above.
Article 59
Drafted and proposed laws are sent, for review, to the relevant commissions of each Chamber of Parliament before deliberation in a general session.
After the opening of public debates, no amendment may be reviewed if it has not already been submitted to the relevant commission.
Article 60
The organic laws provisioned by the present Constitution are deliberated and voted upon according to the general legislative procedure.
Organic laws, before their promulgation, are deferred to the Constitutional Court before the Prime Minister.
Article 61
The means of control of the legislative branch over the executive branch are the following: interrogation, written and oral questioning, commissions of investigation and control, the motion to censure exercised by the National Assembly within the conditions provisioned by article 64 in this present Constitution.
A weekly session is reserved for questions posed by Parliament members to members of the Government. Questions regarding current affairs may become the subject of interrogations of the Government, even during extraordinary sessions of Parliament.
The executive branch must furnish Parliament with all demanded information regarding its affairs and activities.
Article 62
An organic law determines the conditions in which a written question may become an oral question with debates, and the conditions of the organization and function of commissions of investigation and control.
A weekly session may be devoted to the examination of oral questions related to the activity.
Article 63
The Prime Minister, after the deliberation of the Council of Ministers, assumes the responsibility of the Government before the National Assembly by posing the issue of confidence, either through a declaration of general policy or through a section of a law.
The debate over the question of confidence will take place three days after it has been posed. Confidence cannot be refused without an absolute majority of the members of the National Assembly.
Article 64
The National Assembly may call into question the Government’s leadership by a vote for a motion of censure. Such a motion will be inadmissible if it does not receive signatures from at least a fourth of the members of the National Assembly.
The vote for a motion of censure may not take place before three (3) days after its submission. The motion of censure may not be voted in without an absolute majority of votes from the members of the National Assembly.
If the motion of censure is rejected, its signatories may not propose another motion in the same session, except in the scenario provisioned in article 65 below.
Article 65
When the National Assembly adopts a motion of censure or refuses its confidence to the Prime Minister, the Prime Minister must immediately submit his resignation to the President of the Republic.
The resignation of the Prime Minister also implies the collective resignation of the Government.
A new Prime Minister will be named according to the conditions provisioned in article 15.
Article 66
The closing of ordinary or extraordinary sessions may be rightfully postponed to permit, in the relevant cases, the application of the dispositions of articles 25, 26, and 50 above.
