OUAGADOUGOU (Reuters) – Security forces in Burkina Faso fired teargas and beat and arrested protesters on Thursday as they tried to reach parliament before a vote on a move to allow the president to stand for re-election.

Officers in pick-ups pursued opposition supporters and cordoned off the area around the building in the capital Ouagadougou, a Reuters photographer said. In response, hundreds of protesters burned tyres and set up makeshift barricades.

Lawmakers are due to vote on Thursday morning on a government plan to revise the constitution to allow President Blaise Compaore stand for re-election next year, when he was due to stand down.

The proposal has deeply divided Burkina Faso, one of the world’s poorest nations and which has positioned itself as a mediator in regional crises.

It has also drawn criticism from former colonial power France and from the United States, allies of the Burkinabe government in operations against al Qaeda-linked groups in West Africa.

Compaore has been in power since 1987, ruling the cotton and gold-producing nation with a generally firm grip. However, in recent years, he has faced increasing criticism, including from within his own camp and the military.

Hundreds of thousands of people took to the streets of Ouagadougou and other towns across the country on Tuesday in what the opposition said was the start of a campaign of civil disobedience over the proposed constitutional reform. The government has called for restraint.

It is not yet clear if the government will ask lawmakers on Thursday to approve a referendum on changing term limits to allow Compaore to stand, or try to directly pass the changes it seeks by securing the support of 75 percent of parliamentarians, as allowed under law.

France has called on Compaore to adhere to African Union rules preventing constitutional changes that allow leaders to stay in power. The U.S. government has said it is concerned.

One Ouagadougou-based diplomat said he expected the government to try to push the changes directly through parliament but it was likely to be a close vote.

“It is an awkward one,” the diplomat said. “We have all leant as heavily as we can. But if you amend the constitution through constitutional means, diplomats don’t have a leg to stand on, even if you don’t like it.”

(Reporting by Joe Penney and Mathieu Bonkoungou; Additional reporting by David Lewis in Dakar; Writing by David Lewis; editing by John Stonestreet)

-thestar