Constitutions around Africa have been repeatedly tested on the issue of presidential term limits. We explore the four most recent cases of African presidents facing the end of their constitutionally mandated limit, all of which developed in Central Africa. Burundi, Rwanda, the Republic of Congo, and the Democratic Republic of Congo all adopted constitutions limiting presidential tenure to two terms; yet, in 2015, when these limits were approaching, none of the sitting presidents simply stood down. Our analysis focuses on the constitutional provisions meant to protect the two-term limit, the strategies employed by each of the four presidents, and the difficulty they faced in pursuing extended tenure. We find that constitutional provisions do constrain, but not always to the expected degree. Our analysis adds a consideration of a foundational constitutional factor to the growing literature on term limits in Africa, with implications for other regions of newly developing democracies.

在总统任期限制问题上，非洲各地的宪法已经反复经受考验。我们探讨了非洲总统面临的宪法规定的限期即将结束的最新四个案例，所有这些案例都发生在中非。布隆迪，卢旺达，刚果共和国和刚果民主共和国都通过了将总统任期限制为两个任期的宪法。然而，在2015年，当这些限制逼近时，没有任职的总统就任总统。我们的分析集中在旨在保护两个任期限制的宪法规定，四位总统中的每位总统所采用的策略以及他们在寻求延长任期方面面临的困难。我们发现，宪法规定确实有约​​束力，但并不总是约束到预期的程度。