ECOWAS urged to do more in ensuring peaceful transition of power

The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) should do more to ensure the maximum two terms mandate for presidents is fixed into her supplementary protocol on democracy and good governance, the Centre for Democracy and Development has said.

Idayat Hassan, the director of CDD in a statement yesterday said rather than having a regional body that is working to uphold key democratic values, aging leaders appear to be learning from one and other about how they can prolong their time in office. This, she said, was a concern, and one that should be shared by good governance and democracy activists across the region.

She said in the last quarter of 2020, presidential elections would take place in Guinea and Cote D’Ivoire in October, November in Burkina Faso and December in Niger and Ghana.

The centre said there are concerns that the prevailing situations in Mali and Burki Faso could reverse the democratic progress in the bloc.

“In the last five years, several West African countries have initiated constitutional review processes that have discussed term-limits. Whilst the twoterm limit has largely been upheld in the basic laws, incumbents have moved to ensure that new constitutions are accompanied by a resetting of the termlimit clock.

“Military coups are a less common occurrence in the region than they once were, but the army led the takeover of government in Mali in August 2020, not the first in the last decade was a stark reminder that they remain a threat to the region’s nascent democracy,” the centre said adding that the next few months will be key for democracy in the region and can shape the narrative about elections to come in 2021.