The transition period before a return to constitutional order in Burkina Faso has been set at three years, specifies a charter signed on Tuesday 1is March by the head of the junta which overthrew elected President Roch Marc Christian Kaboré on January 24, noted a journalist from Agence France-Presse (AFP).
“The duration of the transition is set at thirty-six months from the date of the inauguration of the president of the transition”Lieutenant-Colonel Paul-Henri Sandaogo Damiba, stipulates a “Constitutional Charter of the Transition” which he signed at the end of the national assizes bringing together “living forces” of the country who will invest it on Wednesday.
The duration of this transition period is longer than that of thirty months proposed by a technical commission set up by the junta at the beginning of February and by a draft charter which was discussed for several hours by the national meetings on Monday and Tuesday.
The work of these meetings involved the junta, parties, unions, civil society organizations, youth, women and people displaced by the jihadist attacks that have hit Burkina Faso since 2015.
“Strengthening governance and the fight against corruption”
The charter also stipulates that the president of the transition “is not eligible for the presidential, legislative and municipal elections which will be organized to end the transition”. This provision also applies to the twenty-five members of the transitional government whose “the Prime Minister is a civil personality”.
In addition to the president and the government, the organs of the transition include a “Council of orientation and follow-up of the transition”fixing “the main orientations of State policy”and an “Transitional Legislative Assembly” composed of 75 members, according to the charter.
He specifies that two of the main missions of the transition are “to fight against terrorism, restore the integrity of the national territory” et en ” Ensure the security “and “provide an effective and urgent response to the humanitarian crisis and the socio-economic and community dramas caused by insecurity”. She will also have to “strengthening governance and the fight against corruption”.
In addition to the reproach of impotence in the face of jihadist groups, the ousted president Roch Marc Christian Kaboré – under house arrest in Ouagadougou since the putsch – was also accused of not having demonstrated effectiveness in the fight against corruption.