Constitutional council to be set up

Cote d’Ivoire’s head of state, Brigadier General Robert Guei, on Wednesday announced his intention to create a broad-based consultative constitutional council, according to an Information Ministry communique published on Thursday by local dailies. The council is to be made up of representatives of political parties, trade unions, religious groups and other associations. It will be able to set up committees to draft the country’s constitution and electoral code, the communique said. The cabinet meeting was the first since the decision by the Front Populaire Ivoirien (FPI) to take up seats in the cabinet, which it had refused to do last week because of dissatisfaction over the distribution of ministerial posts. The 22-member cabinet comprises members of the military Conseil National de Salut Public, civil society and political parties, including the FPI, the Rassemblement des Republicains (RDR) led by ex-prime minister Alassane Dramane Ouattara, and the former ruling Parti democratique de Cote d’Ivoire (PDCI). According to the communique, the government’s main plans include reducing state spending, fighting corruption and restoring relations with the country’s donors, some of whom suspended aid during the previous administration because of corruption and overdue payments. The Minister of Economy and Finance said that due to the suspension, only six billion CFA francs in development aid had been mobilised whereas 220 billion cfa had been expected. (The exchange rate of the CFA franc is about 636 to the US dollar). The government also aims to restore the conditions for real democracy and establish a climate of trust to encourage national and foreign investment, according to the communique.