The exception to the rule
Something unusual is going on in Benin. The tiny West African country has presidential elections scheduled for this Sunday, 5 March.
The 72 year old incumbent president Mathieu Kérékou is not running because of a constitutional clause which requires candidates be 70 years old or less.
Oh wait, this is 21st century Africa. I misspoke.
Kérékou is not running DESPITE a constitutional ban.
Unlike his homologues in Tunisia, Guinea, Uganda, Togo, Burkina Faso, neither Kérékou nor his allies tried to ram through a constitutional amendment allowing him to serve as president-for-life.
I can only applaud Kérékou for this decision to finally step aside.
He has been the country's head of state for about 30 of the last 35 years. Too many other heads of state have deluded themselves into believing that their nation would collapse into chaos if the reins of state were denied their omniscience.
In reality, to deem a single man indispensible to the fortunes of his country is an admission of hideous failure. It's an admission that the leader has done a miserable job guiding the state toward self-sufficiency, institutional stability and political maturity.
Kérékou could've tried to clling to power for life, like Bongo, Biya, Museveni, Obiang, Mubarak, Ben Ali, Mugabe, Conté, Sassou and apparently Obansanjo. But he chose a far more honorable path.
posted by Brian @ Friday, March 03, 2006
2 comments
2 Comments:
Good post and funny (humorous). There is an Irinnews update on the elections over at AllAfrica.com dated March 6th, "Benin: Counting underway after calm vote...":
http://allafrica.com/stories/200603060595.html
I guess that we should be thankful that the last "King of the Dahomey" has decided to stepdown due to constitutional limits and turn over the reins of power in Benin to a younger, democratically-elected candidate. I found these two paragraphs from the IRINnews article interesting:
UN IRIN News March 06, 2006
"...Kerekou, who is barred from standing by a constitutional age limit of 70, has dominated Beninese political life for three decades, first as Marxist military ruler and from 1990 as the motor behind the restoration of multiparty politics. But concerns about whether he will finally relinquish his hold are clouding the election.
On casting his vote on Sunday, Kerekou warned against fraud, deploring the loss of a million voting papers and the record number of 4,021,626 eligible voters, a figure that analysts and politicians alike say is far too high in this country of some seven million people..."
I guess the team of 158 international election observers and the Benin Election Commission will be able to sort that little problem out? I also noticed that some polling stations were using the transparent plastic boxes that voters used in Uganda last month. Walmart has a special on those voting boxes this week, 5 pcs. for $1.00 (without locks).
Very nicepost. Thabo Mbeki also said that he would not try to change the constitution in South Africa (there was a wild rumor see).
Now, I want to be careful, let us not overrun ourselves. The guy before Kerekou II was democraticaly elected, and a very smart and intellectual international civil servant, Nicephore Soglo... we saw what type of a mess he brought along. So let us hope for real elections, with worthy and capable candidates.
P.S: BRE and Brian, you have abandonned The Salons...
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