Editing Zaire (section)

===Constitutional changes===
By 1967, Mobutu had consolidated his rule and proceeded to give the country a new constitution and a single party.<ref name=":2">{{Harvard citation no brackets|Meditz|Merrill|1994|p=48}}.</ref> The new constitution was submitted to popular referendum in June 1967 and approved by 98 per cent of those voting.<ref name=":2" /> It provided that executive powers be centralised in the president, who was to be head of state, head of government, commander in chief of the armed forces and the police, and in charge of foreign policy.<ref name=":2" />

But the most far-reaching change was the creation of the [[Popular Movement of the Revolution]] (Mouvement Populaire de la Révolution—MPR) on 17 April 1967, marking the emergence of "the nation politically organised".<ref name=":3">{{Harvard citation no brackets|Meditz|Merrill|1994|p=49}}.</ref> Rather than government institutions being the [[emanation of the state]], the state was henceforth defined as the emanation of the party.<ref name=":3" /> Thus, in October 1967, party and administrative responsibilities were merged into a single framework, thereby automatically extending the role of the party to all administrative organs at the central and provincial levels, as well as to the [[trade union]]s, [[youth movement]]s, and [[Student society|student organisations]].<ref name=":3" />

Three years after changing the country's name to Zaire, Mobutu promulgated a [[Constitution of Zaire|new constitution]] that consolidated his hold on the country. Every five years (seven years after 1978), the MPR elected a president who was simultaneously nominated as the only candidate for president of the republic; he was confirmed in office via a referendum. Under this system, Mobutu was reelected in 1977 and 1984 by implausibly high margins, claiming a unanimous or near-unanimous "yes" vote. The MPR was defined as the country's "single institution," and its president was vested with "plentitude of power exercise." Every five years, a single list of MPR candidates was returned to the National Assembly, with official figures showing near-unanimous support. All citizens of Zaire automatically became members of the MPR at birth. For all intents and purposes, this gave the president of the MPR—Mobutu—complete political control over the country.{{Citation needed|date=October 2021}}