Central African Republic: Touadéra sets the wheels in motion for a new constitution

On the afternoon of Wednesday, September 14, 2022, Central African President Faustin-Archange Touadéra installed a committee to draft a new constitution for the country. About fifty personalities make up this committee which will have to propose a new fundamental text within three months.

More than determined to give his country a new fundamental law, President Faustin-Archange Touadéra has taken action. In the afternoon of this Wednesday, he installed the drafting committee of a new Constitution for the country. The members of this committee are about fifty personalities whose mission is to propose a new fundamental text within three months. The main opposition parties as well as the Catholic Church all refused to participate.

Proposal of a new constitution, a popular demand

In front of the deputies, the government and the representatives of institutions, the Head of State declared that he was “bowing to the demands of the population. He also stressed “that no institution” “had the power to stand before popular sovereignty“. In other words, President Faustin-Archange Touadéra is reportedly referring to the Constitutional Court, which is continuing to examine appeals against the formation of the drafting committee for a new constitution by the opposition platform BRDC.

Read also: Central African Republic: Expected to make a decision, the Constitutional Court between a rock and a hard place

“Faithful to my republican commitment, I cannot remain insensitive to the pressing demand of my people for a new fundamental law”, said Faustin-Archange Touadéra.

It also continues that “the Constitution of March 30, 2016 does not confer on the President of the Republic or any other institution the power to stand before the popular sovereignty, to limit or prevent the exercise of that sovereignty.”

”A new foundation of the State, a supreme norm, a source of legitimacy, a new organization of public powers, reflecting our habits, customs, the evolution of our society and the worldwill be proposed after three months of work,” said the Central African President who claims to be happy ”the inclusive nature of the drafting committee of the new Constitution”..