Off the wire
• Men's singles results at table tennis worlds (updated)  • Roundup: 2 roadside bomb blasts kill 4, wound 9 in Afghanistan  • Fukuhara out of table tennis worlds women's singles  • Life sciences company DSM suffers net loss in Q1  • Italian police targets top mafia clan in eastern Sicily, 15 arrested  • EU approves acquisition of 6 hotels by SCG, Melia  • Spotlight: World sees Baltimore riots results of racial discrimination, social inequalities  • EU launches sector inquiry into mechanisms to ensure electricity supplies  • Former Shanghai official under judicial investigation for bribery  • Spanish bank BBVA reports 1.536 bln euros of net profit in Q1  
You are here: 　 Home

News Analysis: Republic of Congo president calls for political dialogue

Xinhua, April 29, 2015 Adjust font size:

Republic of Congo President Denis Sassou N'Guesso on Tuesday reiterated the need for dialogue between the country's different political actors to find consensus on the proposal to either amend the Constitution or not.

"We should not present dialogue as a fetish or like something that will one day just fall from heaven. Dialogue is a virtue in Africa," the Congolese president said when he addressed the media in Brazzaville.

"I believe this debate is normal and it should be conducted in a structured manner. We want it to be more inclusive because we want all actors to be there, be it politicians, civil society or whichever institutions," Sassou N'Guesso said, adding that everyone should be involved in the search for consensus.

Speaking of the future of public institutions, the Congolese president affirmed that ideal conditions will be created to allow all participating parties to air their views in respect of diversity of each other's opinions and in total freedom.

Asked about the date for the meeting, the president said a particular date had not yet been chosen.

He said time had come for political actors to find consensus on the issue, but "if there's no consensus, the people will have to give their opinion through a referendum."

"The people will either say yes or no, without shedding any blood in the streets," Sassou N'Guesso affirmed.

For several months, the Congolese political class has been calling for the organization of a political dialogue to find consensus on the question of whether to change the 2002 Constitution or not.

The debate the proposal to change the Constitution has generated has led to divisions between the parties supporting the president and those opposed to him.

In this regard, parties supporting the president have continued to argue that changing the Constitution was good as the current document had concentrated too much powers in the presidency, something that hampered smooth running of other institutions.

However, the opposition parties have resisted the proposal, arguing that it was meant to enable Sassou N'Guesso, 72, who is serving his final term, to contest for a third term and extend his stay in power.

Republic of Congo's 2002 Constitution limits presidential terms to two and it also limits the age of presidential candidates to 70 years. Endi