Civil society groups and opposition leaders in Central African Republic are protesting in the nation’s capital Bangui over attempted revision of the Constitution.
The call for protest came 24hours after President Faustin Archange Touadera ordered the creation of a committee to revise 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,” an opposition leader stated.
Denouncing the initiative, he accused President Touadera of trying to abrogate the two-term presidential limit set in the Constitution in a country which has battled a decade-long civil war.
“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,” Martin Ziguélé, spokesperson for the BRDC, president of opposition party MLPC said.
Touadera won a second term in 2020 with a 53.16 percent of the total vote in a controversial poll amid widespread insecurity in the CAR.
In 2020, less than 30% of registered 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.
The Central African Republic has a wealth of mineral resources, including high-value diamonds which account for nearly half of the country’s total export earnings.
