DAKAR, Senegal (AP) — Congo's President announced a national commission will be set up next year to draft a new constitution for the central African country, raising concern among the opposition over possible altering of the presidential term limit.
Felix Tshisekedi was reelected in December with results questioned by the opposition and has spent much of his time in office trying to gain legitimacy after a disputed 2018 election while struggling to put an end to the armed conflict in the country’s east to the disgruntlement of many.
“Our constitution is not good,” Tshisekedi said Wednesday during an official visit to Kisangani, the capital of Tshopo Province in the country's northeast. “It was drafted abroad and by foreigners,” he added, referring to the 2003 peace agreement signed in South Africa that put an end to a deadly civil war and set up a government of national unity.
Congo’s current constitution was drafted in the country and adopted by referendum in 2006. It is the country’s sixth constitution since gaining independence from Belgium in 1960.
Tshisekedi has criticized the current constitution several times in recent months, saying it was “outdated." Opposition groups have expressed worry that the president may change the two five-year presidential terms to remain in power.
On Wednesday, Tshisekedi slammed what he said was the slow decision-making process — it often takes months after elections before a government is formed — and the tensions between governors and the provincial assemblies as reasons to draft a new constitution. He also said that changing the presidential term limit was up to the people to decide, not the president.
He didn’t share details on how the members of the commission would be chosen.
One of the main opposition parties, Together for the Republic, condemned Tshisekedi's announcement.
“It is false to claim that a constitution voted on in a referendum by the Congolese, after debate in the transitional parliament, is a constitution written by foreigners,” Hervé Diakiese, the party's spokesperson posted on social platform X. “This regime seeks false solutions to real problems,” he added.
Fred Bauma, a human rights activist and leader of the social justice organization The Struggle for Change, said Tshisekedi had sworn to observe and defend the constitution during his inauguration earlier this year.
“Today he poses as the first detractor of the constitution, and this after having violated it several times,” he wrote on X.
Experts say Tshisekedi has the power to call to change the constitution but it will have to be approved by 60% of the parliament or pass by referendum with over 50%.