The Congolese president Denis Sassou-Nguesso is having more and more difficulty resisting the temptation to modify the Constitution to stay in power. The Head of State aged 72 announced, on 22 September, that he would organise a referendum on the revision of the basic law in order to be able to stand for a third term during the presidential election in 2016.

Without giving precise dates, he announced setting up a commission charged with adopting a "draft Constitution" and convening a "referendum poll in the near future".

"I have decided to call directly on the people so that they decide on the draft law setting out the basic principles of the Republic (....) and fixing the new forms of organisation and the new rules of State function", declared the president in a message broadcast on the public radio and television.

The Congolese Constitution in force since 2002 limits presidents to two terms and the age of candidates to 70 years. It therefore does not allow President Sassou Nguesso, who completes his his second and theoretically last seven-year term in 2016, to stand for re-election. The central committee of the Congolese Workers Party (PCT, in power) however voted almost unanimously, on 31 December 2014, in favour of a change in the Constitution with a view to permitting Mr. Sassou Nguesso to stand for the presidential election in 2016.