Panafrican News Agency

Guinean opposition leader hails opening of consultations on constitution

Conakry, Guinea (PANA)   -   Guinean opposition leader Amadou Oury Bah Thursday urged the country’s sociopolitical actors to unite and speak with one voice in national consultations over the possibility of a referendum for a new constitution.

The call followed months of suspicions emanating from sociopolitical actors against President Alpha Condé, accused of wanting to change the constitution to stand for another term beyond his second and last term in office due to end next year.

The president on Wednesday evening in a televised message engaged the government to open discussions with all actors on the possibility for a new constitution.   

However, Condé, who did not openly say in his address that the constitution must be changed, urged his prime minister, Dr. Ibrahima Kassory Fofana, to hold nationwide talks with the country’s sociopolitical class.

Bah Oury, former minister of National Reconciliation under the regime of Lansana Conté, said in an interview with PANA that the key actors must unite to look into the ways and means of holding national consultations to avoid confusion.

“In order to avoid dispersion and confusions, the key actors of our country (moral authorities, political parties, civil society, union organisations) will have to speak with one voice to agree on the way to hold the consultations with the Prime Minister,” he said.

The former vice-president of the Union of Guinean democratic forces (UFDG) and one of its main founders but expelled since 2016, called the head of the Guinean government to hold “responsible and legitimate debate” during the next consultations.

In that respect, he urged the prime minister to hold inclusive consultations based on the constitution.

 He suggested that “a responsible, structured, and methodologically planned debate with precise identification of participants, enjoying true legitimacy” was necessary.

The member of the national front for the defence of the Constitution (FNDC) and opposition leader therefore disagreed with the party, which immediately rejected in a declaration the proposal on national consultations on the constitution.

The Guinean president benefited from the unconditional support of several former fierce opposition leaders who on several occasions called for the holding of referendum for a new constitution.

In his speech, President Condé warned, without specifying the identities, “all those who want to take the country hostage” by attempting to stifle or bungle the popular will to which, beginning by himself, all Guineans must be submitted.

He reaffirmed his decision to give his opinion publicly at the end of the consultations to be held by the government.

During a council of ministers held in June, President Condé praised the governmental team who said they favoured a new constitution.

In his locality of Siguiri, stronghold of the ruling Rally for the Guinean People, more than 700 kilometers from the capital, Conakry, the minister of defence and presidential affairs, Dr Mohamed Diané, said recently in a support demonstration for a new constitution that no one held Guinea’s land title.

For several months, clashes, often violent and deadly, were reported between supporters and critics of a new constitution. 

Article 27 of the Guinean Constitution stipulates that the president of the Republic is elected through direct universal suffrage, for a term of five years, renewable once; and in no case, can one exercise more than two consecutive terms.

Again, Article 152 says that the initiative of the revision of the Constitution belongs concurrently to the president of the Republic and the Members of Parliament.

To be taken into consideration, the project or draft revision must be adopted by parliament by a simple majority of its members.

 

-0-     PANA      AC/IS/MSA/RA    5Sept2019