Tuesday, May 26, 2009

Is Niger about to turn back to dictatorship?

This looks bad for democracy (or any other representative system of government) in Niger:
Niger's President, Mamadou Tandja, has dissolved the uranium-rich country's parliament a day after his bid for a third term in office was ruled illegal.

He assumed executive powers after the constitutional court turned down his attempt to extend his time in power.
He used an executive decree to turn out the Parliament, and has apparently gone back on promises of quitting in December of this year. This was supposedly to give time for the results of the November Presidential election, which he can not constitutionally stand for.

Let's see what ECOWAS and the African Union have to say about this latest example of the trampling of the rule of law.

No comments: