The Central African Republic's transitional parliament has started work on a new constitution aimed at restoring peace in the violence-torn country, its speaker said Friday. The constitution will be submitted for public feedback ahead of general elections planned for February 2015, National Transitional Council speaker Alexander Ferdinand Nguendet told AFP.
Nguendet said lawmakers would consult groups from across society, as well as international organisations, to create a text "that reflects the deep aspirations of the Central African people, and allows our country to find lasting peace for its development". The lawmakers have until the end of their session in May to write the text and define new institutions for the impoverished, coup-prone country.
The last constitution, which concentrates the bulk of power in the hands of the president, took effect in 2004, the year after Francois Bozize seized power in a coup. It was replaced with a transitional constitutional charter in August last year when Bozize was himself toppled in a coup by the mostly Muslim Seleka rebel group led by Michel Djotodia.
Nguendet recalled Friday that "our country's basic law was suspended" in the wake of the Seleka coup. Interim President Catherine Samba Panza has been seeking to stop the ensuing cycle of revenge attacks by the Christian majority against the Muslim minority since she took the reins in January.
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