(Ecofin Agency) - At least three people were shot dead this Tuesday 20^th October during a demonstration organised by the opposition against a constitutional referendum which would allow President Denis Sassou Nguesso to seek a third term in 2016, the Reuters agency reports. A witness who brought one of the bodies to the city mortuary declared that his friend was killed by security forces. “I was there when they opened fire. I was lucky not to die”, he said.

According to hospital sources, cited by AFP, there were also at least eight injured, six of whom were gun injuries.

The demonstration by the Congolese opposition was set up despite the government banning public meetings in the run up to the referendum which is scheduled to take place on 25^th October. “The government has decided to ban the use of some meeting areas in order to allow the election campaign to continue without insults or provocations”, the Minister of Communication, Raymond-Zéphirin Mboulou, explained in a communiqué.

A few hours before the demonstration, mobile internet, SMS services and the broadcast signal for radio RFI were shut down in Brazzaville.

The new Constitution project would bring down the duration of a presidential term from seven to five years but stipulates that the term of head of state is “twice renewable”. It also lowers to 30 years (against 40) the minimum age to be candidate to the supreme office by scraping the maximum age limit of 70 years.

The Congolese Constitution in force since 2002 limits to 2 the number of presidential terms and the age of candidates to 70 years. It therefore does not allow President Sassou Nguesso (photo), who ends in 2016 his second and in theory last 7-year term, to seek a new term.

Denis Sassou Nguesso, 72 years, cumulates over 30 years of power at the head of the country. He led Congo during the one-party system, from 1979 to the pluralistic elections of 1992, which he lost. Back to power in 1997 following a violent civil war, he was elected president in 2002 and re-elected in 2009.