Disagreements over preventing African leaders extending their rule indefinitely have forced the postponement of a democracy charter due to have been adopted at a summit this weekend, South Africa said on Friday.
South Africa's Foreign Minister Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma said foreign ministers from the 53-member African Union meeting in Banjul, Gambia on Thursday discussed a draft African Charter on Democracy, Elections and Governance. But they could not agree on a clause to prevent governments altering constitutions to extend their rule, and decided instead to send the draft document back to a committee of ministers who drew it up, she said.
The charter had been due to go before a heads of state summit starting on Saturday.
"The charter has been sent back, so that it can't be adopted unless the heads of state disagree with the ministers, which is unlikely," Dlamini-Zuma told reporters.
"The main contention was around the clause that talks about people not being allowed to manipulate the constitution to extend their terms of office," she said.
A draft charter drawn up by the committee of AU ministers in early June included a clause threatening sanctions against governments who violated the spirit or letter of their constitutions to extend their rule indefinitely. The clause was seen as targeting a growing number of African presidents who have tried to amend their constitutions to remove term limits.