Pro-govt protesters call for constitutional change in C. Africa

Hundreds of people demonstrated in front of the national assembly in Bangui on Friday, calling for a constitutional change that critics fear will be used to keep the Central African Republic’s president in power, according to an AFP correspondent.

A proposal to change the constitution sparked the ire of civil society during reconciliation talks with the opposition in March.

The opposition and civil society are concerned that any change will allow President Faustin Archange Touadera to run for a third term.

Current laws do not allow a third term.

The Republican Front, a group of young activists who support Toudaera, submitted a petition to the national assembly president’s chief of staff which “recommends the rewording or even revision” of an article.

The head of the Republican Front — also chief of staff to the youth and sports minister — Heritier Doneng, said the group collected more than 600,000 signatures in the country of around five million.

“We are asking for a revision to the constitution of March 30, 2016 because we realised there are many flaws and ambiguities,” Doneng told AFP.

But he did not say whether the change would allow the president to seek a third mandate.

Many protesters on Friday did not know why they were at the assembly.

“I don’t know why we’re here. Maybe we’ll have money at the end but it’s not certain. The head of my neighborhood told me to come,” one protester told AFP, not wishing to give her name.

But another called Jean-Levy said, “I’m here for the constitutional change… so that President Touadera can serve a third time because I know he’s good for the country’s development.”

Protesters believe “they will be able to change other articles or even write a new constitution to allow a third term,” civil society representative Gervais Lakosso told AFP on Friday.

Touadera was re-elected with more than 53% of the vote in December 2020, but only a third of the electorate was able to vote due to insecurity in the country, which has been ravaged by civil war since 2013.