The Constitution of Zaire (French: Constitution du Zaïre), was promulgated on 15 August 1974, revised on 15 February 1978, and amended on 5 July 1990. It provided a renewed legal basis for the regime of Mobutu Sese Seko who had emerged as the country's dictator after the Congo Crisis in 1965.
Defining state power as an extension of Mobutu's power, the 1974 constitution codified Zaire as a one-party state with the Popular Movement of the Revolution as the only legally permitted party. It enshrined the status of Mobutism as the state ideology. The 1974 constitution was the third in the Congo's post-independence history, replacing earlier constitutions adopted to replace the original basic law of 1960, adopted in 1964 and 1967.
