Skip to main content
Benin Republic set to review Constitution on terms of Political Office.



In a year when many countries on the continent and in West Africa are changing their constitutions to allow for incumbent presidents to run yet again, the Beninese National Assembly has approved a major constitutional reform to discuss the precision on the two terms of office of the President of the Republic among other issues.

Detailing the political situation of Benin at the floor of the ECOWAS Parliament, the country report presented contained that the constitutions review was to address the current political situation of the country marking a new Republic following two unsuccessful attempts.

The report stated that “Benin Republic has after the April 2019 Legislative elections experienced a tense atmosphere following the frustrating feelings from political group who were unable to participate in the legislative elections, due to the inability to meet the requirement on the law on the constitution of political parties and elections process”.

“Following the pressure from the population, the review is required to set respected term limits of the terms of office of the President of the Republic, this development is allowing for Political and democratic change, where no citizen in his or life must hold more than two terms of office” it added.

“West African countries over time has more often witnessed presidents that tend to undermine the aspirations of their cabinet and government members creating a leadership vacuum around them, which generally paves the way for them changing the constitution to run again, this reform however, will help set a better pace” it stated.

Making more clarification on the reforms, Hon. Youssoufou Bida said, “Benin currently operate a five year per tenure system, this constitutional review which will be undertaken is not a review that have undertaken too many comments like other countries, what was done was on a consensus basis, this reform was to enhance stability, which will enable us to concentrate on development issues”, he said.   

The report highlighted “The revision of the number of seats of MPs of the National Assembly from 83 to 109, for a population of nearly 14 million; the improvement of women representation in the Assembly; The limitation of the number of mandates of MPs to no more than 3; The creation of the office of a Vice President of the Republic position” as other issues to be visited in the review.  

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Buhari re-appoints Yakubu as INEC Chairman

  The President, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd.), has re-appointed Prof Mahmood Yakubu as the Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission. The Special Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity, Femi Adesina, disclosed this in a statement on Tuesday titled “President Buhari nominates Prof Yakubu as INEC chairman for second term in office.” The statement read, “President Muhammadu Buhari has presented the Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission, Prof Mahmood Yakubu, for a second term in office. “In a letter to President of the Senate, Ahmad Ibrahim Lawan, the President said in accordance with the provision of Section 154 (1) of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999 (as amended), ‘I am pleased to present for confirmation by the Senate, the nomination of Professor Mahmood Yakubu for appointment as Chairman, Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) for a second and final term.’ “Prof Yakubu was first appointed by P...
Post a Comment
Read more

IMPLEMENTATION OF NEW SIM REGISTRATION RULES

Following the earlier directive on the suspension of new SIM registration by network operators, the Honourable Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Dr. Isa Ali Ibrahim (Pantami) convened an urgent meeting of key stakeholders in the Communications industry on Monday, December 14, 2020.   The meeting had in attendance the Chief Executive Officers (CEOs) and Management of the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA), the National Identity Management Commission (NIMC), as well as the CEOs and Management staff of all service providers in the industry.   At the meeting, the need to consolidate the achievements of last year’s  SIM registration audit and improve the performance and sanity of the sector was exhaustively discussed and all stakeholders agreed that urgent drastic measures have now become inevitable to improve the integrity and transparency of the SIM registration process.   To this end, t...
Post a Comment
Read more