Demonstrations broke out on Tuesday night in Ouagadougou, the capital of Burkina Faso, and across the West African country after the government announced plans to hold a referendum to amend article 37 of the constitution. The referendum, which is subject to parliamentary approval, would allow current President Blaise Compaoré to stand for re-election next year.Zéphirin Diabré, leader of the Chef de File de l'Opposition Politique (or CFOP), a coalition uniting all opposition parties, announced during a press conference in Ouagadougou that his party was calling for a nationwide day of protests on October 28.Compaoré took power in a 1987 coup, in which his predecessor Thomas Sankara was assassinated. He was elected president of Burkina Faso in 1991, running unopposed when the opposition boycotted the elections. He was re-elected in 1998, 2005, and 2010.Speaking to VICE News, Maître Benewendé Sankara, one of the main leaders of the opposition, explained that these events have already moved beyond partisan disagreement."Civil disobedience has already started," he said. "In Ouagadougou, the people are expressing their anger by putting up barricades, burning tires, and chanting anti-regime slogans." According to Sankara, the police have already intervened several times and used tear gas to disperse crowds of demonstrators."There have been many mobs and nobody knows where we are headed," Sankara said.Cyriaque Paré, journalist and founder of lefaso.net, the first information portal in Burkina, told VICE News that demonstrators had planned to gather at the national assembly on October 30 to stop deputies from voting. According to Paré, some of the demonstrators may go as far as to hold parliamentarians hostage.Compaoré has served two seven-year terms since 1991, and is serving his second of two five-year terms since 2005. A constitutional amendment that was adopted in 2000 put a two-term limit on the presidency. The amendment to article 37 would allow Compaoré to stand for re-election in 2015.The council of ministers has already adopted the bill, which must now be voted on by the assembly. The ruling party, Congrès pour la Démocratie et le Progrès (CDP) holds a majority of seats in the assembly, and there are few doubts that the bill will be passed.With the CDP well established in the country's mostly rural areas, Compaoré is predicted to win the referendum.Virgile Dall'Armellina collaborated on this article.
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