7.30.23
BANGUI, Central African Republic (AP) — The Central African Republic went to the polls Sunday in a highly anticipated vote on a new constitution, which would remove presidential term limits. President Faustin Archange Touadera wants to extend presidential terms from five to seven years and remove the previous two-term limit, enabling him to run again in 2025. The new constitution would replace the one adopted at Touadera’s inauguration in 2016, when the country was in a civil war and 80% of it was not under state control. If the new constitution is passed, it could entrench the ruling party’s power indefinitely, analysts say. “This referendum basically confirms the fears of authoritarian drift (in CAR),” said Enrica Picco, Central Africa project director with the International Crisis Group. The new constitution would weaken checks on the executive by opposition parties, closing the space for Central Africans to participate in democratic decision-making, she said.
Opposition groups accuse the ruling party of making a draft of the new constitution publicly available too late for people to make informed decisions, less than three weeks before the referendum, said Picco. Together with opposition parties they are calling on Central Africans to vote against the proposed constitution, or abstain from the referendum. “Touadera wants to see himself as an emperor, and he wants to make our country what he wants, not what Central Africans want,” said former Prime Minister Nicolas Tiangaye. The preliminary results of the referendum are expected to be announced in just over a week, to be finalized by the constitutional court in late August.
apnews.com
