Duvalier amends the Constitution to hand the country to his son

On this day thirteen amendments to the 1964 Constitution were adopted. Their real purpose was one clause: lowering the minimum age for the presidency so that Jean-Claude Duvalier, then nineteen, could legally inherit the country. Francois Duvalier had already told the nation on 2 January that he would name a successor who had watched the government closely. He named his son on 24 January. A referendum on 31 January offered voters ballots printed only with the word OUI.