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General News of Tuesday, 26 May 2015

Source: starrfmonline.com

Africans endorse term limits for Presidents - Report

Africans say their leaders must stick to their term limit, according to a new afrobarometer survey.

In recent times some African nationals have staged protests to kick against attempts by their leaders to extend their rule.

The latest is Burundi where there is been weeks of protest against President Pierre Nkurunziza's decision to run for a third-term.

But the survey says many Africans will resist their leaders who have plans to extend their tenure.

The survey conducted in 34 countries with 51,600 citizens support limiting Presidential mandates to a maximum of two except Algeria.

Support for term limits has been consistently high over time and is the majority view even in countries that have never had term limits or have removed term limits from their constitutions.

Also more-educated citizens tend to express greater support for term limits.

13 countries including Ghana had 80 percent or more of its nationals endorsing the proposal.

While countries like Burundi, South Africa, Burkina Faso and Namibia score a little over 50 percent.
Support for term limits was highest in Benin, making it all the more surprising that President Yayi Boni is reportedly contemplating removing them.

In Burkina Faso, nearly two- thirds of the country’s citizens expressed support for term limits – an omen of the protests that ended Compaoré’s reign.

In Burundi, barely half of citizens supported term limits in 2012, but that proportion had jumped to 62% by 2014 another precursor to the widespread protests that have erupted since President Nkurunziza announced his decision to seek a third term despite the two-term limit set by the country’s constitution.