By Enyichukwu Enemanna
Djibouti’s parliament on Sunday unanimously voted to lift the age limit for presidents of the country, which before now was constitutionally fixed at 75, clearing the coast for current President, Ismail Omar Guelleh, 77, to re-run in next year’s elections.
Guelleh has been in power since 1999.
The country heads to poll in April next year and Guelle is at liberty to contest as the constitutional barrier has been lifted by the parliamentary voting.
The country’s 65-member parliament on Sunday voted to remove the age limit of 75, effectively allowing Guelleh, who is currently 77, to run again in April.
The vote still needs to be approved by the President himself, following which, it will be confirmed by another vote in early November.
Opposition figures and civil society groups have condemned the voting at the parliament. The express concern that it may allow the incumbent President to remain in power for as long as he may wish.
His party, the IOG has ruled the country for the past 26 years, after he became President for the first time in 1999. Djibouti is a unitary presidential republic, where power is mainly concentrated in the hands of the President, and the country is considered as authoritarian.
Despite being a small and not very populous country, Djibouti holds great international strategic significance due to is geographic location in the Horn of Africa.
It is home to several foreign military bases, among them the US, Japan and France.
