CAR: opposition, civil society criticize constitutional revision

Opposition leaders and civil society associations gathered in the Central African Republic‘s capital, Bangui, to demonstrate against the attempted revision of the Constitution.

The protest was called one day after President Faustin Archange Touadera ordered the creation of a committee to rewrite the constitution.

One opposition leader denounced the initiative accusing the President of trying to scrap the two-term presidential limit set in the Constitution.

“We do not understand that today, when the Central African people are experiencing other problems, we are suddenly presented with a story about amending or revising or drafting a new constitution like a thunderclap during the dry season. This is not the priority of the Central African people. The aim of this manoeuvre is to blow up the locks limiting the number of presidential terms to two, so that Touadera will be president for life”, claimed Martin Ziguélé, spokesperson for the BRDC, president of opposition party MLPC.

Touadera won a second term in 2020 with a 53.16 percent share of the vote in a controversial poll amid widespread insecurity in the CAR, which has been battling a decade-long civil war.

Less than one in three voters were able to cast a ballot in a country of some five million which the UN says is the world’s second least developed nation.

africanews