In June a series of constitutional amendments were passed in Burkina Faso.

The always-excellent La Constitution en Afrique website has provided a link to the amendments. They are available in French.

In May I blogged about some of the problems that were occurring in the context of an amendment that was designed to allow the upcoming legislative election to be delayed for a period. The text was submitted to the Constitutional Council, which ruled, in a report from Lefaso.net, that the reform was constitutional.

I had assumed that was the end of the process. However, in June another constitutional law was passed. This reform changes many articles of the constitution. In fact, one report states that 62 of the 173 articles in the constitution were amended!

One of the reason why so many changes were required is that reform introduced an upper chamber of parliament, the Senate. Indeed, the President of the Senate now assumes the interim presidency if the President of the Republic dies or resigns. Senators will be indirectly elected. Some will be elected by local councillors. Some will be appointed by religious, cultural, labour and business institutions.

In semi-presidential terms there have been changes to the role of the prime minister. Art. 46 now specifies that the president must nominate a prime minister from among the parliamentary majority. In addition, Art. 63 now requires the prime minister to undergo an investiture vote no more than 30 days after his/her appointment.

Interestingly, Art. 168.1 now states that all presidents who have been in office from independence in 1960 to the time of the amendment enjoy complete immunity. This article seems designed to protect the current president, Blaise Compaoré. However, if it facilitates an eventual alternation in power by reassuring President Compaoré that he would not be prosecuted if he stepped down, then this is probably a good thing for democracy in Burkina Faso.