ABIDJAN, July 24 (AFP) - Ivory Coast's new constitution, put to a test
in a
weekend referendum, has elicited controversy because of a key nationality
clause that could bar a leading opposition figure from running for
president.
The contentious clause was added to the constitutional draft less than a
week before voters cast their ballots on Sunday.
The last-minute change was viewed by some as a thinly-veiled measure by
the
ruling junta to keep Alassane Ouattara, leader of the Rally of Republicans
(RDR) party, from running in presidential elections set for September.
Critics have accused the junta of stirring up anti-foreign sentiment,
which
in part was responsible for the ouster of president Henri Konan Bedie in
December.
Before being toppled, Bedie and his political entourage waged an intense
campaign against Ouattara, accusing him of forging his identity papers and
of
not being Ivorian.
The country's constitutional draft says that presidential candidates
"must
never have availed themselves of another nationality." The previous
constitution stipulated that candidates "must never have renounced their
Ivorian nationality."
As a young man, Ouattara won a scholarship to study in the United
States.
Later in his career, he was appointed by Ivory Coast's then-president,
Felix
Houphouet-Boigny, to a senior position at the Central Bank of West African
States.
He held that post as a representative of Burkina Faso, a relatively
common
practice at the time, diplomats say.
But Ouattara's detractors have said the RDR leader has made use of a
Burkinabe nationality "when it was convenient for him to do so."
The draft constitution also stipulates that both parents of a candidate
must be Ivorian, tightening a previous clause which required only one
parent
to have Ivorian origin.
RDR opponents say that Ouattara's father and his paternal grandmother --
who is believed to have been an ethnic Mossi princess from Burkina Faso --
were not "true-blood" Ivorians.
Ouattara has insisted that both his parents were born in Ivory Coast.
While the nationality provisions have stirred up debate in a country
where
one-third of the population is foreign, the new constitution will usher in
other changes.
The draft lowers the voting age, from 21 to 18 years old, and abolishes
the
death penalty.
Ivory Coast is among countries which, although it had not officially
abolished capital punishment, have not carried out executions within the
last
10 years.
The constitutional draft also outlaws all forms of mutilation, including
female genital mutilation -- a common practice in Africa.
In 1996, the government announced a campaign to eliminate female genital
mutilation, and finally made the practice illegal last year.
The junta has looked after itself in devising the new constitution,
which
grants "civil and penal immunity" to all junta members and authors of the
December 24 coup.
crl/jlr/sst
Sidi Sanneh
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
To unsubscribe/subscribe or view archives of postings, go to the Gambia-L
Web interface at: http://maelstrom.stjohns.edu/archives/gambia-l.html
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
|
