Niger parliamentarians are calling President MamadouTandja's dissolution of parliament Tuesday dictatorial after the Constitutional Court foiled his bid for a thirdterm.
The court also prevented the leader from his planned referendum whichwould have allowed him to lift term limits. The parliamentarians vowed to begindemonstrations to protest President Tandja's action, calling it a coup d'étataimed at destabilizing the country.
President Tandja is expected to completehis two five-year terms in office later this year. Abdullahi Jauri is alegislator in Niger's dissolved parliament. He told VOA Nigeriens would resist President Tandja's objective to create a monarchy.
"Thepeople are very sad about that because, you know, Niger was one of the mostdemocratic states in Africa where we ran two free and fair and transparentelections," Jaurisaid.
He said the president seemsto have his interests above the country's interest.
"Now for the ambition of oneperson who wants to go beyond his two term mandate, we are now very worriedabout the future of Niger because anything can happen," he said.
Jauri said PresidentTandja's ambition to remove term limits which would enable him to pursue athird term after his mandate expires later in the year are illegal.
"All that action they arenot following law and regulation of Niger," Jauri said.
He said the protestersintend to alert Nigeriens about the illegality of the president's action.
"We are going to tell thepeople exactly what the Constitutional Court has said that he (PresidentTandja) has not respected his oath," Jauri said.
He explained that thoseopposed to the president's ambition are determined to sensitize other Nigeriensabout their freedom to choose a new leader.
"We are going to struggle,and you know, there is a rally program starting from the far end of Niger whichwould be held with all the majority of the political parties. It will take about 10 days," he said.
Jauri condemned thepresident's move as an affront to Nigeriens, which amounted to unconstitutionalseizure of power.
"Right now it is like acivilian coup d'état," he said.
Jauri said the president'saction is a pretext to sterner measures that he really wants to take.
"He has expressed he wantsto bring change to the presidential regime. That means all the power would beconcentrated on one hand, while the real fact is that he wants to install amonarchy regime," Jauri said.
He said despite the refusalof the court to allow his third term bid, President Tandja wants to break allrules and regulations to achieve his aim.
"This constitution does notallow him more than two terms. And the Constitutional Court, a national body,yesterday said no to whether he can have a referendum. They said no, it is notpossible," he said.
Jauri said the president hadsought the legislators input, but then refused to listen to them.
"Yesterday brought a letterasking our advice, and he didn't even have the courtesy to listen to our adviceabout that," Jauri said.
He said the opposition wouldleave no stone unturned to thwart what he described as President Tandja'sillegal act.
"We will go through what lawand regulation of our country gives us the right," he said.
Jauri said the oppositionwould not be cowed into submission. Even if the president uses the military toprevent them from protesting, he said, Nigeriens will fight for their rights.
"If he puts the force tostop us, then the population would be witness. The international community willwitness again. So anyway, we will fight by any means," Jauri said.
"You know, liberty, you haveto fight to get it. So no liberty would be served on a tray like this so we areready to pay the price which we have to pay," he said.
The embattledpresident has long maintained that Niger's population wants him to stay andlead the country. He contends that he has plans to end a rebel insurgency thathas destabilized parts of the Sahara, including regions where al-Qaedaterrorists reportedly operate.
Meanwhile, the 15 members ofthe Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) said last week thatneighboring countries could punish Niger with economic sanctions if it behavedundemocratically over President Tandja's referendum proposal.