President asks parliament to ”turn page” with new constitution

Ivory Coast President Alassane Ouattara called on parliament on Wednesday to approve a new constitution that he says will draw a line under years of turmoil and war but which the opposition calls a backward step for democracy.
Ouattara promised during his re-election campaign last year to remove the constitution’s requirement for presidential candidates to have parents who are both natural-born Ivorian citizens, a sore point in a country that has long attracted immigrants from neighboring countries.
The draft constitution submitted to parliament by Ouattara softens the clause, which had been used by his opponents to bar him from elections.
“This is the occasion to definitively turn the page on the successive crises our country has known, to write new pages in our history by proposing a new social pact,” Ouattara told lawmakers at the National Assembly.