The president of uranium-rich Niger was moving forward with a highly controversial referendum yesterday on a new constitution that would remove term-limits and grant him an unprecedented three-year transitional term with boosted power.
Opposition leaders are boycotting the vote because they say it is illegal, a view shared by international donors who may respond by cutting aid to one of the world’s poorest nations.
Mamadou Tandja has ruled the desert country since 1999, twice winning votes hailed as free and fair. But in the waning months of his final term, the bespectacled 71-year-old has gone down the path of many African strongmen, breaking a promise he has frequently made to step down when his term expires on Dec. 22.
Over the last few months, Tandja has swept aside every obstacle in his path.
In May, he dissolved parliament because it opposed the plan. In June, he invoked extraordinary powers to rule by decree, as dictators and coup leaders have done across the African continent for decades.
A few days later, he dissolved the nation’s constitutional court after it ruled the referendum illegal and a violation of his oath of office. Tandja established another court in its place whose members he chose.
Tandja says he is pushing to stay in power because his people have demanded it. He says they want him to finish several large-scale projects worth billions of dollars that have gotten under way in recent months, including a hydroelectric dam, an oil refinery and what will be the largest uranium mine in Africa.
Analysts say the projects, financed by China, France and Arab nations, dwarf other foreign aid and are helping keep Tandja in power. His critics believe he wants to stay on so his family and clan can benefit from the expected influx of wealth.
The ease with which Niger’s democratic institutions have been cast aside marks a setback for a continent struggling to shake off so-called Big Men rulers who cling to power by force and patronage.
The desire to extend terms of sitting presidents is a common scourge in Africa. Though a handful of leaders have failed in attempts to extend their rule, many more have succeeded. Similar referendums have been pushed through in Algeria, Cameroon, Chad, Gabon, Guinea, Namibia, Tunisia and Uganda.
The new constitution in Niger has been criticized because it was drafted by a five-member panel handpicked by Tandja.
Among the new powers written into it for the president are the authority to name one-third of a new 60-seat senate and the ability to appoint a media czar who can jail members of the press who are deemed a threat to the state.
The new constitution would also do away with Niger’s semi-presidential system of governance, replacing it with a presidential system and a prime minister with vastly reduced powers.
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