HOW AFRICAN LEADERS STAGE ‘CONSTITUTIONAL COUPS’

People wait outside a polling station in Koumassi, a district of Abidjan, on Oct. 25, before the start of Ivory Coast’s presidential elections. Incumbent President Ouattara, campaigning on restoring stability, won reelection.

By Kamissa Camara

On September 17 this year, the United States commemorates the 229th anniversary of its Constitution, a document that provides a model for countries around the world.

Among the document’s 27 amendments, the 22nd says that “no person shall be elected to the office of the president more than twice […].”

Presidential term limits have also been a common feature of African constitutions — but constitutional amendments have almost exclusively extended presidential term limits. Since the 1990s, at least 30 presidents in sub-Saharan African nations have tried to extend their regimes by tweaking constitutional term limits. 

These “constitutional coups” are a way to cement presidential power — and do so with the appearance of legality. While regional bodies such as the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) and the African Union (AU) are facing growing pressures to prevent third terms, member states remain strongly opposed to formal bans.

Between 2005 and 2015, presidents in Senegal, Burkina Faso, Congo Republic, Congo, Uganda and Rwanda attempted to extend their terms in office through constitutional or other legal amendments.

Governments backed up these constitutional changes with force on several occasions, along with human rights abuses. In Congo, the January 2014 demonstrations followed President Joseph Kabila’s attempt to modify the electoral laws and to stay in power beyond the two terms outlined in the country’s constitution. 

Police forces cracked down on demonstrators, leaving 27 dead.

After the protests, the Congolese parliament eventually removed the controversial article that would have allowed President Kabila to remain in power beyond December this year, the end of his second term. Kabila assumed the presidency in 2001 at the age of 29 after his father was assassinated.

After the constitution was amended to allow presidential candidates under age 35, he was re-elected in 2006, and again in 2011. The presidential elections scheduled for 2016 are likely to be postponed indefinitely, posing risks for further instability in the country.

In 2015, President Pierre Nkurunziza of Burundi won reelection to a third term, despite a constitutional two-term limit. Protesters clashed with government forces, while opposition candidates boycotted the vote. Nkurunziza claimed the country’s legislature had elected him to his first term as president, making him eligible to run for two additional terms.

But some countries are fighting this trend, using the very same weapons — constitutional referendums. In 2015, citizens of the Central African Republic overwhelmingly backed a constitutional referendum aimed at ending nearly three years of political instability.

 The amended constitution limits the power of the president and increases that of the parliament — and establishes a Special Criminal Court to try war crimes and crimes against humanity committed in the country since 2003.

Senegal’s successful constitutional referendum in March reduced presidential terms from seven years to five years. Other measures reaffirmed the role of opposition parties and local officials.

Other African countries such as Mali and Benin are negotiating new constitutions. Mali will soon revise its constitution to incorporate provisions of the 2015 Algiers Peace Agreement signed between the government and former rebel groups.

Since July this year, a group of experts has been reviewing the peace agreement to figure out which clauses to integrate into the Malian constitution.

In Benin, newly elected President Patrice Talon is suggesting that the country’s constitution be revised to limit presidential terms to only one. However, in October 2011, the constitutional court of Benin ruled that presidential term limits were unchangeable. 

Therefore, Talon’s constitutional reform project might be moot.

These referendums are good for democratic consolidation, the process by which new democracies establish strong foundations to prevent a slide back to autocratic rule. They are also crucial for good governance, long-term stability and rule of law.

In July, Ivory Coast’s parliament voted overwhelmingly in favor of holding a referendum on a new constitution. A draft constitution, with a nationwide vote, is expected by the end of this year.

Last November, after winning a second term in office, President Alassane Ouattara declared during his acceptance speech that “the [constitutional] modifications will take into account [Ivory Coast’s] history, culture and the values that [Ivorians] want to promote for a new Ivory Coast.”

Voters approved the last Ivorian constitution in 2000, after a 1999 military coup by General Robert Guéi. The 2000 constitution introduced Article 35, which requires presidential candidates to prove that both parents are natural-born Ivorians. Article 35 also states that presidential candidates must have never claimed citizenship in another country.

Since the 1930s, the Ivory Coast has been the first destination for West African migrants — under Article 35, an estimated 30 percent of the country’s 14 million inhabitants would be considered non-Ivorians.

This nationality clause contributed to the country’s bloodiest civil war, from 2010 to 2011, and to a decade of political and security crises.

The concept of “Ivoirité” effectively excluded key politicians who did not meet the stiff nationality requirements, including current President Ouattara, who served as prime minister and was an aspiring presidential candidate.

Former president Henri Konan Bédié accused Outtara of being of Burkinabé descent, as his parents came from neighboring Burkina Faso. Ouattara was able to run for president after a 2005 peace deal allowed him to obtain an Ivorian citizenship certificate.

The impending constitutional referendum would remove the nationality clause, which would reflect Ivory Coast’s multiethnic population and promote the inclusion of all Ivorians, regardless of their origins, in political affairs.

But the referendum also includes a number of controversial reforms, such as the creation of a new senate body, with one-third of the senators appointed by the president.

In addition, the referendum would create a vice-president position — a move some in the country perceive as a convenient and quiet move by President Ouattara to pick a successor.

According to constitutional law scholar Charles Manga Fombad, “a major cause of political and constitutional instability in post-independence Africa was the ease with which political leaders subverted constitutionalism by arbitrarily changing constitutions to suit their political agendas.”

 Paradoxically, voting on constitutional changes can be one of the most transparent and democratic ways to further a culture of consultation — and strengthen democratic political systems.

Recent patterns in African constitutional referendums suggest that as much as military coups are becoming passe, constitutional coups soon might also become outdated.

In sub-Saharan Africa, constitutions in many countries are slowly becoming binding documents that limit presidential powers — and boost democracy and the rule of law.

BURUNDI: BUJUMBURA UNDER ‘CURFEW’

A main boulevard in Bujumbura city

By Moses Havyarimana, BUJUMBURA Burundi

Burundi capital Bujumbura, is under ‘curfew’ on the order of the city’s mayor, Freddy Mbonimpa, indicated in a letter dated November 21.

The mayor has restricted time for all bars in the city over security.

The order followed a meeting between the Public Security Minister Alain Guillaume Bunyoni and Interior Minister Pascal Barandagiye.

The agenda of the closed door meeting, also attended by security and government officials, was the status of the country’s security ahead of next year’s general election.

In his letter, the mayor states; “The opening hours of bars and other drinking places is strictly from 5pm to 9pm during weekdays and from 1pm to 9pm on weekends and public holidays.”

The same letter also banned street vendors in and around the city with immediate effect. Local administrators and police commissioners are expected to implement the order.

Early last month, a group of unknown armed assailants shot dead three people and wounded three others in a bar in the city centre.

Below is a full list of what the mayor ordered:

The 13 orders of Bujumbura Mayor Freddy Mbonimpa.

1. From now on, bars will be open from 5pm and close at 9pm on working days and from 1pm to 9pm on holidays and weekends.

2. Joint security committees must be set up in places where there are none and existing ones must be strengthened.

3. The household notebooks [books where family members in a home are listed for local administration officials to keep record of who is in the home] must be regularly checked.

4. Youth hangout places (called Ligala) must be disbanded.

5. Every city resident must clean the front of his/her home.

6. At least two lamp posts [and lamps] must be installed in each home and lit.

7. The price of cement from Burundi Cement Company (Buceco) must be sold at 24,500 FBu [$15] per 50 kg bag.

8. Street vending of phone airtime is strictly forbidden in Bujumbura.

9. 'Hawking is hereby banned.

10. All parts of [damaged] cars must be cleared off the streets.

11. Owners of the restaurants must install spotlights to keep their premises lit.

12. Owners of restaurants must hire at least two security guards.

13. Rubble and sand should be cleared from the streets.

FLOODS KILL AT LEAST 39 IN CONGO'S CAPITAL KINSHASA

By Stanis Bujakera, Kinshasa DR CONGO

At least 39 people died in flooding on Tuesday in Kinshasa, the capital of Democratic Republic of Congo, following torrential rains overnight that caused landslides near the University of Kinshasa, authorities said.

Residents stand near the scene of a landslide following torrential rains near the University of Kinshasa, in the Democratic Republic of Congo November 26, 2019

At one site on University Avenue, in a southern suburb, at least three houses and a road collapsed into a ravine. Chunks of concrete and metal roofing could be seen sticking out of the freshly turned orange earth, a Reuters witness said.

The vice governor of Kinshasa province, Néron Mbungu, said rescue workers were continuing to hunt for bodies.

“Wherever we found death, we gave the mayors the means to bring the bodies to the morgue, and we also made available the means for the wounded to be taken to medical centers,” he said.

One woman wailed and clapped her hands as Red Cross rescue workers carried several bodies to an ambulance.

“My son, my son,” she cried.

Andre Mwamba, whose house had partially collapsed into the ravine on University Avenue, said the heavy rain started at 2 a.m. (0100 GMT) and lasted four hours.

“We started moving things out of the house at around six and then the house started sliding. The neighbors agreed to let us stay with them while we look for another place,” Mwamba told Reporters.

Floods are not unusual in Kinshasa, a city of almost 12 million people with notoriously poor infrastructure and where many neighborhoods are poorly planned, though they rarely cause so many deaths.

NAMIBIANS VOTE IN TIGHT CONTEST CLOUDED BY ECONOMIC CRISIS

Namibians queue at a voting station near Windhoek during the November 2009 elections. 

WINDHOEK, Namibia

Namibians voted on Wednesday in what was expected to be the toughest contest yet for the party that has ruled for three decades of independence, an election it was still expected to win despite a brutal economic crisis.

President Hage Geingob, Namibia’s third leader since the sparsely populated and mostly arid country freed itself from the shackles of apartheid South Africa in 1990, is seeking a second and final term from 1.3 million registered voters.

He faces nine challengers including Panduleni Itula, a dentist-turned-politician who is a member of the ruling SWAPO party but is running as an independent. Itula is popular with young people, nearly half of whom are unemployed.

Concurrent legislative polls will elect 96 members of parliament, testing SWAPO’s 77-seat majority. Polls opened at 7 a.m. (0500 GMT) and close at 9 p.m. (1900 GMT).

Results are expected within 48 hours.

A sputtering economy, one of Namibia’s worst-ever droughts and the biggest corruption scandal in its history have conspired to make this election unexpectedly tough for Geingob, who won by 87% last time.

Independent presidential candidate Panduleni Itula at Hakahana sports field during the launch of his manifesto

The economy has been stuck in a recession for the past two years, marred by a drought that ravaged agricultural export crops, as well as by unprofitably low prices for Namibia’s main hard commodities, uranium and diamonds.

The Bank of Namibia expects the domestic economy to contract for a third year in 2019, by 1.7%.

A scandal in which two ministers were alleged to have conspired to dole out fishing licenses to Iceland’s biggest fishing firm, Samherji, in return for kickbacks has also taken the shine off the ruling party.

Whether the result is close or not, a SWAPO win is likely to be controversial, especially since the court threw out a case mounted by the opposition against the use of electronic voting machines it fears will be used to cheat.

The military said in a statement it was on high alert for violence, which Namibia has avoided in previous polls. - Africa

SUDAN MILITIA LEADER GREW RICH BY SELLING GOLD

Sudanese General and Vice President of Sudanese Transitional Military Council, Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo (centre) attends a signing ceremony in Khartoum on July 17, 2019

KHARTOUM, Sudan

Late last year, as President Omar Hassan al-Bashir’s hold on power weakened, one of Sudan’s most feared militia leaders lashed out against the government of his long-time ally and benefactor.

In a speech to cheering troops, militia chief Mohamed “Hemedti” Hamdan Dagalo sympathised with the thousands of protesters who had poured onto the streets in December demanding food, fuel and an end to corruption. He hit out at officials “who take what isn’t theirs.”

“There are some people who are doing great harm, and they are the officials, not the poor,” he raged.

After years of loyally supporting Bashir, Hemedti took part in the military coup that toppled the leader in April and is now a senior figure in the transitional government that is preparing the ground for elections in three years’ time. Under the constitution, members of the transitional government aren’t allowed to engage in private business activity.

Now a Reuters investigation has found that even as Hemedti was accusing Bashir’s people of enriching themselves at the public’s expense, a company that Hemedti’s family owns was flying gold bars worth millions of dollars to Dubai.

Current and former government officials and gold industry sources said that in 2018 as Sudan’s economy was imploding, Bashir gave Hemedti free rein to sell Sudan’s most valuable natural resource through this family firm, Algunade.

At times Algunade bypassed central bank controls over gold exports, at others it sold to the central bank for a preferential rate, half a dozen sources said. A central bank spokesman said he had no information about the matter.

Airway bills and invoices, reviewed by Reuters, give a rare glimpse into Algunade’s dealings—a closely-guarded secret in a country where two thirds of the population live in poverty.

The documents, covering a four-week period from the end of last year, show Algunade sent around $30 million of gold bars to Dubai, around a ton in weight.

In the past, Hemedti has spoken openly about owning gold interests, most recently in an interview with the BBC in August.

“I’m not the first man to have gold mines. It’s true, we have gold mines, and there’s nothing preventing us from working in gold,” he said then.

But in response to Reuters’ questions for this article, Hemedti’s office denied any link between the commander and Algunade.

In a separate interview, Algunade’s general manager, Abdelrahman al-Bakri, said the firm is owned by Hemedti’s brother Abdelrahim, who is also the deputy head of Hemedti’s Rapid Support Forces (RSF).

Nevertheless, Bakri maintained there was no connection between Algunade and Hemedti and his RSF, which has evolved from a militia in Darfur to Sudan’s most powerful paramilitary group.

“Algunade is as far as can be from the RSF,” he told Reuters at the firm’s heavily secured headquarters.

He showed Reuters registration documents that named Abdelrahim as the company’s owner. Reuters was unable to contact Abdelrahim.

Bakri acknowledged that Algunade exported gold to Dubai in late 2018 but said it had done so at the request of Bashir’s intelligence agency. He denied the firm sold gold to the central bank at a preferential rate.

Hemedti’s grip on Sudan’s vital gold trade illustrates the scale of the challenge to rescue an economy broken by decades of mismanagement, corruption and war.

His career began as a militia man in western Darfur, where rebels took up arms against Khartoum in 2003. Bashir mobilized several militia to quell the revolt and, in the conflict that followed, some 300,000 people were killed and two million more driven from their homes.

The government disowned “outlaw” fighters who murdered civilians, but the International Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant for Bashir for war crimes and the United States imposed further economic sanctions against his government.

In Darfur, Hemedti earned a reputation as a ruthless commander and a loyal servant to Bashir. The president called him “Hemayti,” meaning “my protector.” 

After Hemedti seized the goldmines of Darfur’s Jebel Amer mountain region, Bashir allowed him to hold onto the prize.

“He became the new king of Jebel Amer and its gold,” said Amjad Farid, a politician and pro-democracy activist. “For Bashir, he was his loyal boy, his protection force.”

Hemedti and his militia took full control of the Jebel Amer mines in 2017 - the year the United States began lifting economic sanctions against Sudan.

He faced few obstacles as he expanded his operations from Darfur to South Kordofan and other regions of the country.

Algunade traded with poor, artisan miners who used toxic mercury to extract gold, at grave risk to their health. The leftover soil, known locally as “Karta,” was trucked to Algunade’s plants where it was treated with cyanide to harvest the remaining ore.

These practices have sometimes brought Algunade into conflict with local people. In October, people in the town of Talodi, South Kordofan, set fire to the Algunade plant, accusing the firm of plundering their gold and polluting their soil.

“This gold belongs to us and this is our land, handed down by our grandfathers. 

Why should we give the gold to Algunade? We burned the factory to stop pollution and to stop them stealing our gold,” said miner Haroun Abdallah.

Algunade’s general manager, Bakri, said the “citizens of South Kordofan should say thank you very much to Algunade” for all it had done for the area. He estimated the attack on the facility caused damage of about $6 million.

A global campaign against the use of mercury in gold mining and other industries led to a United Nations treaty, the Minamata Convention on Mercury, which will prohibit the manufacture, import and export of products containing mercury by 2020.

Sudan’s Energy and Mining Minister Adil Ibrahim told Reuters his country would comply with the agreement. The convention does not extend to cyanide, however.

“Cyanide is more serious because it seeps into the earth, and can be washed by rain, and it kills so many animals and seeps into drinking water and affects vegetation in the area,” said Anwar al-Haj the chair of Sudan Democracy First Group, a non-governmental organization which advocates for democracy.

It published a report in 2018 that asserted a link between the use of hazardous chemicals in mining and increased miscarriages, birth defects and deaths.

Energy and Mining Minister Ibrahim said the government would help miners find alternatives to mercury, but cyanide use would continue because, if handled properly, it isn’t harmful.

Sudan’s central bank is supposed to oversee gold exports, but two current and one former government official and several industry sources told Reuters that Bashir sometimes allowed Hemedti to circumvent this rule.

The former president let Algunade sell gold as it liked, these people said, because Hemedti’s RSF militia was a useful counterweight to generals in the regular military whom Bashir perceived as a threat to his rule.

The export documents and invoices reviewed by Reuters, covering a four-week period from the end of 2018, showed Algunade doing business with one counterparty in Dubai, a company called Rozella.

Contacted by Reuters, Rozella confirmed the firm had dealt with Algunade. A company official said transactions between the two companies took place over a period of three months in late 2018. Algunade’s general manager Bakri told Reuters that Rozella was the only firm Algunade dealt with in Dubai.

Under the arrangement with Bashir, Algunade would hand some of its export earnings to the state, to pay for the government’s fuel and wheat purchases, government officials said.

Algunade’s general manager, Bakri, confirmed that some of the proceeds of gold sales were used to buy fuel. He said Algunade bypassed the central bank only for three months in late 2018, at Bashir’s request.

A senior government official, however, told Reuters, “There were no official records showing that Algunade gave money” to the state.

This official said Hemedti used proceeds from gold exports “to buy weapons for Bashir and himself.”

He estimated that Hemedti pumped millions of dollars into buying weapons and vehicles for the RSF that roams the streets with rocket-propelled grenades and machine guns mounted on jeeps.

Asked if revenues from Algunade’s gold sales were used to buy weapons, Bakri maintained there was no connection between the firm and the RSF or Hemedti. Hemedti’s office declined to comment beyond denying any link between the commander and Algunade.

The head of Sudan’s gold exporters’ union Abdel Monem al-Siddiq said that even when Algunade sold its gold to the central bank as it was supposed to, it received a preferential rate—a claim Algunade’s general manager Bakri rejected as “fake news.”

With tens of thousands of soldiers, the RSF is Hemedti’s power base. It is deployed across the country to protect gold mines and strategic buildings.

Thousands of its fighters have fought for Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates in Yemen’s civil war. Hemedti’s fighters are deeply loyal.

“The leader sometimes takes the time to talk to us militiamen by telephone. We will always support him,” said one fighter, declining to be named because he wasn’t permitted to talk to the media. He said he was paid $20,000 to fight in Yemen for six months. Many of his countrymen live on less than $10 a month.

Energy and Mining Minister Ibrahim faces a big challenge to reform the gold industry. He said successive ministers failed to ensure concessions were awarded fairly and transparently, leading to corruption. “It’s a mess,” he added.

Finance Minister Ibrahim Elbadawi, who estimated Sudan needs up to $5 billion in international support, said the government will push to end monopolies in sectors including gold mining. Algunade’s general manager Bakri insisted Algunade doesn’t have market dominance.

For many Sudanese, Hemedti and his firm are symbols of the country’s repressive past and economic inequalities.

One gold trader told Reuters how he stood up during an industry conference recently to complain that Hemedti’s gold business had become too dominant.

Two days later, he said, police hauled him to the prosecutor’s office for questioning about his comments. His account couldn’t be independently confirmed.

At the gold souk in downtown Khartoum, a large sign advertising Algunade blazes above rows and rows of idle jewellery shops. Few Sudanese can afford to buy these days, said shopkeeper Mohammed Awad.

When asked if gold exports had harmed his business, another trader pointed to the Algunade sign above him and said: “We hope that Hemedti will change his ways and keep the gold inside the country.” - Reuters

39 RWANDAN, CONGOLESE NATIONALS REMANDED TO PRISON IN UGANDA

Kampala, UGANDA

Thirty nine Rwandan and Congolese nationals have appeared before Kisoro magistrate’s court in western Uganda for illegal entry into Uganda.

The suspects after their arrest on November 25, 2019  

The suspects who include 35 Rwandan nationals and four Congolese, were arrested in a joint security operation involving the army and Police in Kisoro municipality in the areas of Russia, MuLine and Karumena in the wee hours of Monday morning. More than 200 people were picked up.

However, most of the suspects were released during the screening exercise leaving 39. Some of them didn’t have identification documents.

On Tuesday afternoon, the suspects appeared before Kisoro Grade One Magistrate, Raphael Vueni under tight security where they were charged with illegal entry.

Three Rwandan suspects and a Congolese pleaded not guilty to the charges. The other 35 pleaded guilty to the charges and asked for pardon.

Vueni remanded the three Rwandan nationals and Congolese to Kisoro Government Prison until December 18, 2019.

He also remanded the remaining suspects to prison until tomorrow when they will appear for judgment.

Both Elly Maate, Kigezi region Police Spokesman and Eddie Sserunjojji, Kigezi Region Police Commander declined to comment on the matter.

Captain Peter Mugisha, the Kisoro Resident District Commissioner (RDC), said the operation is aimed at reducing rampant cases of murder, rape, robbery and theft among others in Kisoro District.

According to Mugisha, residents had resorted to mob justice while accusing security of not helping them to identify suspected criminals.

“The residents of Kisoro are angry and always complaining about criminal activities in the district. When they complain, our duty is to protect their lives and properties. Therefore, these kind of operations will not stop because everyone is supposed to have identification documents, especially a national ID indicating where they come from. There have been several robbery, murder and rape case in the district. We cannot just sit and watch as these happen,” Mr Mugisha said.

TANZANIA: RULING PARTY WINS MANIPULATED GRASS-ROOT ELECTIONS

Residents queue to vote at a polling station during the local elections in the town of Arusha, north Tanzania, on November 24, 2019

By Staff Reporter, Dodoma TANZANIA

Tanzania's ruling party has swept local polls boycotted by opposition parties amid alleged government manipulations.

Official results released on Monday showed President John Magufuli's ruling Chama Cha Mapinduzi (CCM) party had scored landslide victories in almost all of the more than 330,000 local leadership positions up for grabs in Sunday's ballot, which decided who would take office at the grassroots of government in villages, cities and towns across Tanzania.

CCM candidates won more than 99 percent of the 12,000 village chairmanships contested, as well as all of the country's more than 4,000 street leadership positions. 

Chadema, the main opposition party, said earlier this month it would not be taking part in the elections because of alleged government manipulations, including the mass disqualification of its candidates. Several other smaller parties also joined the boycott.

"Our party believes it is wiser not to support such electoral cheating," Chadema Chairperson, Freeman Mbowe said in November. "To continue to participate in elections of this kind is to legitimise illegality."

In the economic capital Dar es Salaam, several polling stations were closed on Sunday because the CCM candidate stood unopposed and thus was automatically elected.

Four of Tanzania's 26 mainland regions did not hold polls at all because of the opposition boycott. 

"In most cases, CCM candidates were unopposed," our reporter quoted Selemen Jaffo, the minister for regional administration and local government, as saying at a news conference in the administrative capital, Dodoma. 

“In a very small number of cases, opposition candidates did win because they had not officially withdrawn their bid,” Jaffo said.

In the previous local ballot in 2014, the CCM won three-quarters of the seats that were being contested that year. Chadema picked up 15 percent.

In a country where reliable and independent political data is scarce and the media is increasingly under threat, analysts said the local polls could set the tone for 2020 presidential, parliamentary and council elections.

Magufuli, who is expected to run again, has been strongly criticised by watchdogs for the human rights record of his four-year government.

Free media has been intimidated by draconian cybercrime laws, critical newspapers and bloggers have been silenced, and opposition activists have been harassed, according to Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International.

Chadema says its activists have been kidnapped and beaten, and at least one has blamed authorities for an attack in 2017 in which he was shot multiple times. - Africa