OUAGADOUGOU (Reuters) - A major political party in Burkina Faso on Saturday pledged to support a plan to change the constitution to allow President Blaise Compaore to stand for re-election next year, when he was due to stand down.
The statement of support from the ADF-RDA party means that the president's camp could even secure the changes it seeks by winning 75 percent of the votes in parliament next week, by-passing the need to hold a countrywide referendum.
Compaore has positioned himself as a regional statesman in West Africa having been in power for 27 years. He is a key ally for Western nations fighting al Qaeda-linked Islamists in the region.
However, moves to extend his time in charge after 2015, when he was due to step down, have deeply divided the land-locked nation on the edge of the Sahara.
Gilbert Noel Ouedraogo, president of the ADF-RDA, said the party had decided to support the plan in the name of "peace and democracy".
The party has 18 seats in the 127 seat National Assembly that will vote on the referendum issue on Oct. 30.
The proposed law, seen by Reuters, states that the president can be re-elected twice. Under current rules, the president can only be re-elected once so Compaore should stand down next year.
For now, the government has said it will ask the National Assembly to pass a law calling for a referendum on the constitutional changes.
However, if the ruling party secures 75 percent of the votes in the National Assembly though support from other parties, it can push the changes through without holding a referendum.
In theory, with the support of the ADF-RDA, Compaore's camp would win 99 seats, taking it past the 75 percent mark.
Compaore, who took power in a 1987 military coup, won 81 percent of the vote in the last election in 2010.
But he has suffered a number of defections over the issue in recent months and analysts say it is not clear how many of those who remain in his camp would support the constitutional changes without holding a referendum.
(Reporting by Mathieu Bonkoungou; Writing by David Lewis; Editing by Stephen Powell)
