The reforms they voted on included limiting presidential terms to two five-year terms and preventing the president from holding on to his post if older than 75. While the former reform, while not a first, is rare enough in the region (and in places like Tunisia, Ben Ali amended the constitution to remove term limits), the latter is the first time anywhere, as far as I know, that age limits have been placed on a president. If this rule was applied, neither Egypt nor France would be able to hold on to their current presidents!
Explaining his motives for the referendum, the leader of the junta that staged a coup in August 2005, Ely Ould Mohammed Vall, said:
If the president remains in power for 18, 20 or 30 years and plans to pass his position on to his son or another person of his choice, this would be personal power and a way of ruling that does not take into account the interest of the country or its citizens.
He’s not going to be popular at the next Arab League meeting.
There are also further precautions in the constitution: presidential candidates must pledge that he will not back any revision to the constitution that would change the provisions on presidential terms. The constitution’s article 99 also states that no constitutional amendment of presidential terms can be made at all.
Naturally, all of this can be changed by a despot who comes along later. But Mauritanians did suffer under Maaouya Ould Taya, the ousted leader who ruled from 1984 to 2005. Perhaps they’ve learned the hard way that these rules are valuable. If it works out, they’ll be putting to shame Arab autocrats and giving new legitimacy to palace coups — as I remember Egyptian columnist Fahmi Howeidy predicting last August.
Jonathan Edelstein over at the Head Heeb is less sanguine about the referendum and points out that the constitution still remains strongly presidential, with the president having considerable power over the prime minister and the cabinet. While I agree with him on that point, I still think the insistence on term limits is quite a step forward. Now we’ll have to see how parliamentary elections this Fall and presidential elections next Spring will be carried out.
LOL at “he’s not going to be popular at the next Arab League meeting”!
What will all those patriotic peasants who really love their leader and believe the country needs his gracious and wise leadership forever do now?
The constitution’s article 99 also states that no constitutional amendment of presidential terms can be made at all.
This, even more than the term limit, is the key reform. A recurring problem with African constitutionalism is that two-term limits tend to last precisely two terms before being removed by a compliant parliament. The amendment to article 99 removes that option, and gives two-term presidents a choice between stepping down or staging an outright coup. There’s still no guarantee that some future president might not take the latter course, but the gray (and AU-legal) area that proved so attractive to Idris Deby and Sam Nujoma is gone.
As you say, the parliamentary and presidential elections, and especially whether the colonels keep their promise not to run for elective office, will be a major test. Quite a few democratization processes – the CAR comes most quickly to mind – have gone well until the coup-maker decided that he just had to stay on as elected president, and manipulated the system accordingly.