Since the adoption of the new Constitution, which they denounce, the Togolese opposition and civil society have been torn between the desire to mobilize and fear of repression, a few days before the legislative elections. “We shouldn’t expect much from the elections,” Jean Yaovi Degli, lawyer and former minister responsible for relations with Parliament (1991-1992), declared unambiguously to Agence France-Presse (AFP) on Monday, April 22. adding that “the ruling party has nothing to fear.”
If opposition parties continue to campaign before the double legislative and regional elections on April 29, hopes of a political transition are slim. “A victory for the opposition would be very difficult short of a revolution,” historian close to the opposition Michel Goeh-Akue told AFP, who emphasizes that “the electoral division is favorable to the regime” and the risks of significant “ballot stuffing”.
The Togolese Electoral Commission refused the Togo Episcopal Conference to deploy electoral observers across the country, according to a document consulted by AFP. On Friday April 19, Parliament adopted a new Constitution which shifted the country from a presidential to a parliamentary regime.
The president will be elected by the deputies, and no longer by the people, and power will now reside in the hands of a sort of super-prime minister who will necessarily be “the leader of the majority party” in the National Assembly.
“Source of division and incomprehension”
However, the president of the majority party in the Assembly, the Union for the Republic (UNIR), is none other than President Faure Gnassingbé, who has been head of state since 2005 after succeeding his father, who held the reins of the country with an iron fist for nearly thirty-eight years. And who will thus be able to stay in power, denounces the opposition.
The president of the Episcopal Conference, Mgr. Benoît Alowonou, expressed Wednesday in an interview with Vatican Radio his “great sadness” in the face of this constitutional modification, which he sees as a “source of division and incomprehension,” and called authorities “to listen to the people.”
On Tuesday, around fifteen civil society organizations signed a declaration emphasizing the “illegitimate” and “illegal” nature of the constitutional change, and calling for “a presidential election in 2025”.
They are calling for a large popular rally on May 5 in Lomé, a symbolic date that refers to May 5, 1963, the day of the constitutional referendum that moved the country from a semi-presidential to a presidential regime following the coup of State of Gnassingbé Eyadéma, father of the current president. “We have decided to resist, but it is clear that there will not be much, because everything is done to repress any desire to protest,” admitted Michel Goeh-Akue.
Few international reactions
In Togo, street demonstrations have been banned since 2022, after an attack on the large market in Lomé during which a gendarme was killed. Two days of demonstrations planned for April 12 and 13 by the opposition and civil society groups to protest against the new Constitution could not take place: they were banned by the authorities, and members of the opposition prevented to regroup.
Last week, a French journalist, Thomas Dietrich, known for his critical positions towards the authorities, was expelled shortly after entering Togo, a measure denounced as “brutal and arbitrary” by the NGO defending freedom of speech. press Reporters Without Borders (RSF). On April 15, the High Authority for Audiovisual and Communication (HAAC) provisionally suspended all accreditations issued to the foreign press to cover the elections.
Abroad, only the Office of African Affairs of the United States Department of State said it was “concerned” about this change in the Constitution and asked “the government to allow an open and informed debate, to guarantee the inclusiveness and transparency and respect the right to peaceful assembly”.
The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) for its part sent a mission to Lomé last week. But, after initially mentioning the “seriousness of the controversial constitutional reforms”, she explained that she was only carrying out “a pre-electoral assessment” and would not engage “in any other process”. Since then, she has not communicated about the outcome of her visit.
