ABIDJAN, July 24 (AFP) - Ivory Coast's new constitution, put to a test in a weekend referendum, has elicited controversy because of a key nationality clause that could bar a leading opposition figure from running for president. The contentious clause was added to the constitutional draft less than a week before voters cast their ballots on Sunday. The last-minute change was viewed by some as a thinly-veiled measure by the ruling junta to keep Alassane Ouattara, leader of the Rally of Republicans (RDR) party, from running in presidential elections set for September. Critics have accused the junta of stirring up anti-foreign sentiment, which in part was responsible for the ouster of president Henri Konan Bedie in December. Before being toppled, Bedie and his political entourage waged an intense campaign against Ouattara, accusing him of forging his identity papers and of not being Ivorian. The country's constitutional draft says that presidential candidates "must never have availed themselves of another nationality." The previous constitution stipulated that candidates "must never have renounced their Ivorian nationality." As a young man, Ouattara won a scholarship to study in the United States. Later in his career, he was appointed by Ivory Coast's then-president, Felix Houphouet-Boigny, to a senior position at the Central Bank of West African States. He held that post as a representative of Burkina Faso, a relatively common practice at the time, diplomats say. But Ouattara's detractors have said the RDR leader has made use of a Burkinabe nationality "when it was convenient for him to do so." The draft constitution also stipulates that both parents of a candidate must be Ivorian, tightening a previous clause which required only one parent to have Ivorian origin. RDR opponents say that Ouattara's father and his paternal grandmother -- who is believed to have been an ethnic Mossi princess from Burkina Faso -- were not "true-blood" Ivorians. Ouattara has insisted that both his parents were born in Ivory Coast. While the nationality provisions have stirred up debate in a country where one-third of the population is foreign, the new constitution will usher in other changes. The draft lowers the voting age, from 21 to 18 years old, and abolishes the death penalty. Ivory Coast is among countries which, although it had not officially abolished capital punishment, have not carried out executions within the last 10 years. The constitutional draft also outlaws all forms of mutilation, including female genital mutilation -- a common practice in Africa. In 1996, the government announced a campaign to eliminate female genital mutilation, and finally made the practice illegal last year. The junta has looked after itself in devising the new constitution, which grants "civil and penal immunity" to all junta members and authors of the December 24 coup. crl/jlr/sst Sidi Sanneh ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe/subscribe or view archives of postings, go to the Gambia-L Web interface at: http://maelstrom.stjohns.edu/archives/gambia-l.html ----------------------------------------------------------------------------