Alpha Condé persists and signs, despite the dispute that has killed at least 20 people in two months: the President of Guinea announced on Thursday December 19 a draft new constitution.
The consultations launched in September resulted in a "draft" published Thursday evening. It "will be widely disseminated before its adoption by the sovereign people," said Alpha Condé, hinting that he intended to submit it to a referendum without specifying a date.
Alpha Condé, 81, had already denounced the Constitution dating from 2010 as a "concentrate of corporate interests". Thursday evening, he presented his initiative as the result of an ongoing "debate" on the "gaps and inconsistencies" in the text. He referred to the recent protest as the fact of "certain socio-political actors (who) did not hesitate to threaten the social tranquility of our country".
"It will not pass"
Article 40 stipulates that "the President of the Republic is elected by direct universal suffrage for a six-year term, renewable once". The question is whether this provision would apply to Alpha Condé, elected in 2010 and re-elected in 2015, or if the counters would be reset with the adoption of a new Constitution. The presidential mandate is currently five years, renewable once.
Alpha Condé was once again careful not to reveal his intentions during his speech. But his opponents seem to think that the president intends to use this new Constitution to seek his own succession at the end of 2020 at the end of his current mandate, according to the reactions on social networks under the hashtag "amoulanfe" ("it does not not pass "in the local language), rallying cry of the protesters.
Since October 14, a collective of parties and representatives of civil society have called for a barrage of such a project. Guinea, a small country of 13 million inhabitants, poor despite large mineral resources, has since been the scene of mass demonstrations which have been brutally suppressed.
With AFP
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