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Niger - Reshuffle

Friendly ministers in, hostile judges out

Article published on the 2009-06-30 Latest update 2009-07-01 08:56 TU

President of Niger, Mamadou Tandja.(Photo: AFP)

President of Niger, Mamadou Tandja.
(Photo: AFP)

In his first official act since assuming emergency powers, the ageing president of Niger Mamadou Tandja, has named eight new ministers and fired seven judges from the constitutional court.

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Bazoum Mohamed of the opposition PNDS party called the move “a coup d’etat”, adding that the President is now stepping beyond his constitutional powers.

Tandja, 71, is nearing the end of his second term as president and has expressed a wish to hold a referendum on eliminating term limits, so that he could run for a third term.

This proposal was rejected three times by the Constitutional Court before last Friday, when Tandja announced that he would go ahead with the referendum on 4 August and would rule by decree until then.

The new ministers all come from organisations that support Tandja’s call for a referendum. They replace eight ministers who resigned last week in protest over the idea of abolishing the limit on the number of presidential mandates.

Tandja’s proposed constitutional changes have drawn criticism not only from opposition members, but also from regional organisations in West Africa, such as the West African Economic Community (Ecowas).

On Monday, the head of the African Union (AU) Commission, Jean Ping, said he feared that the situation in the country could get out of hand.

“When there are constitutional changes, we observe to see whether the changes are constitutional, whether the constitution allows the type of reform, which doesn’t seem to be the case here,” he told RFI’s French-language service.

Niger’s constitution, in force since 1999, explicitly limits presidential terms to two and forbids any reform to presidential mandates.

The opposition is calling for a general strike, and a shut-down on Wednesday to demonstrate they are against the president's plan.

They are also calling for nationwide demonstrations on Saturday to call on him to resign.