New support for amendment to Burundi Constitution

With the new leadership, UPD-Zigamibanga party has made a U-turn and is all for the amendment to the Constitution.
In the wake of a controversial new leadership, an opposition party backs the government plan to amend the Constitution.

New leadership, new views: Marina Barampama and Kassim Abdul, respectively the former and the new leaders of UPD-Zigamibanga

Kassim Abdul, who has controversially taken the leadership of the UPD-Zigamibanga opposition party, asks the “government to speed up the setting up of a commission to propose amendments to the Constitution”.

He says advocacy by some political parties for the delay of the amendment till the end of inter-Burundian dialogue facilitated by Benjamin J. Mkapa is a ruse to prevent the preparation of the 2020 elections.

He encourages the public to “massively vote for the constitution amendment bill” when it is proposed.

The impulse to amend the Constitution was fueled in August 2016 by the National Commission for the Inter-Burundian Dialogue (CNDI) report that said the “majority” of Burundians who took part in dialogue sessions wanted the amendment to the Constitution. The very amendment should suppress term limits for presidents.

The Council of Ministers recognized the necessity of the amendment on 16 November 2016. The reason was that “some provisions of the Constitution have become obsolete, and therefore anachronistic, and do not reflect the reality of the moment”.

On 15 February 2017, the Council of Ministers approved of a bill that proposed the setting up of a commission “to list and analyse articles of the Constitution that should be amended”, said the government spokesman Philipe Nzobonariba.

Opposition to the change of the Constitution came from all sides. The international community and Burundi political opposition, including figures like Agathon Rwasa, the Deputy President of the Parliament, Mkapa the Facilitator and UN Secretary General have seen in the proposition to amend the Constitution a will of President Nkurunziza to remain in power forever.

They have also argued that the current security and political situation in which the Constitution has played an important role is not favourable for the amendment. Moreover, the amendment of the Constitution is not the pressing issue.

Even Marina Barampama, who led UPD-Zigamibanga till she was deposed on 18 March 2017 by Kassim, had opposed the amendment to the Constitution.
The new leadership that has adopted an opposite view over the issue was seen by Barampama as a tool to divide the party.