IVORY COAST: Anti-Compaore alliance in Ivory Coast call on other Burkanabes to oppose leader's re-election bid.

Record ID: 182764

  • Title: IVORY COAST: Anti-Compaore alliance in Ivory Coast call on other Burkanabes to oppose leader's re-election bid.
  • Date: 9th July 2014
  • Summary: VARIOUS OF POET RECITING ONE OF ANAKY'S POEMS
  • Embargoed: 24th July 2014 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Cote d'Ivoire
  • Country: Ivory Coast
  • Topics: Crime,Politics
  • Reuters ID: LVAAQ3C4UVRONU2IO50JPYN2V3F2
  • Story Text: Burkina Faso political dissidents living in Ivory Coast urge fellow Burkinabes in Ivory Coast to rally together against a proposed referendum that would remove presidential term limits. Analysts warn that Burkina Faso, long seen as one of the bulwarks of stability in the Sahel region, may be headed for turbulence as President Blaise Compaore seeks to change the constitution to extend his 27-year reign.

    With one of the biggest expat communities outside Burkina Faso, Ivory Coast is home to nearly 5 million Burkinabes.
    Members of the Ivory Coast based, Burkinabe political party, Movement of the People for Progress (MPP) have recently set out to mobilise the Burkinabe community living in Ivory Coast to protest a referendum that would change the country's constitution before next year's election - allowing current President Blaise Compaore to run again.
    The referendum would be over whether to alter Article 37 of the Burkinabe constitution, which was drafted in 2000 and limits presidents to two terms in power.
    Compaore, who seized power in the gold-producing West African nation in a 1987 coup, secured his second, five-year mandate under the constitution in 2010.
    Compaore has positioned himself as a power broker in West Africa and a key ally for France and the United States in the fight against al Qaeda-linked Islamists in the Sahara-Sahel band.
    MPP members are urging Compaore not to seek another mandate and instead preserve his legacy as regional leader.
    "He's a head of state. He was a mediator for years. If you put out your neighbour's fire, when fire starts in your own home, you must put it out. I think Blaise will extinguish this fire here," said MPP Secretary general, Innocent Sankara.
    Members of the MPP, including party president who was formerly head of the National Assembly, are drawn from 75 politicians who left Compaore's Congress for Democracy and Progress party in a mass exodus earlier this year.
    "It's already hard enough in Ouagadougou, so even here in Abidjan although we mix with other Burkinabes, there are still divisions. I think Blaise should respect this and go, so that he can spare us as well as the country, so that Burkina Faso is not affected like Ivory Coast," said Mamounata Kouanda, a representative for Burkinabe women in Ivory Coast.
    Compaore supporters have said he wants to extend his rule, though he has not publicly stated his plans.
    Compaore secured 81 percent of the vote in the last election in 2010. But a brief army mutiny in 2011 rattled Compaore's otherwise firm grip on the military.
    "We are part of a common market and free movement of people and goods, which is like a country, West Africa is like a country. So if there is a crisis in Burkina, it will affect the other countries in the region. It's as if we are having a crisis in Ivory Coast. That is why we must avoid a crisis. That is why the leaders must prove their wisdom, so there is no implosion in Burkina Faso," said journalist Julien Anaky.
    The landlocked nation is home to a growing gold mining sector but it grapples with poor harvests, food shortages and remains one of the world's poorest.
    Burkina Faso is one of several African countries due to face the challenge of political transition as the terms of a batch of long-serving leaders draw to a close.
    Over the next two years, the leaders of Benin, Democratic Republic of Congo and the Republic of Congo are also due to step aside unless they change their constitutions.
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