Political tension is rising in Togo, 48 hours after the adoption of a new Constitution establishing a parliamentary regime, and no longer presidential, by an Assembly dominated by the Union for the Republic (UNIR), the majority party. Fearing that this modification of the fundamental law would leave the way clear for the extension in power of President Faure Gnassingbé, opposition groups and civil society groups expressed their concerns on Wednesday March 27 during a conference of press.
” Enough is enough. We are determined to take up the fight. We are going to give them the battle,” said Jean-Pierre Fabre, president of the National Alliance for Change (ANC, one of the main opposition parties), during a meeting at the ANC headquarters in Lomé, the capital.
“We ask the international community and ECOWAS (the Economic Community of West African States) to take their responsibilities. This is a fight that will last months. The population must mobilize to put an end to this crime,” insisted David Dosseh, spokesperson for the Togo Citizen Standing Front (FCTD, a group of civil society organizations).
Other parties had called a press conference on Wednesday morning at the headquarters of the opposition Alliance of Democrats for Integral Development (ADDI), but it was interrupted and dispersed by around thirty gendarmes equipped with batons under the pretext that its organizers did not have the necessary authorizations.
“It is unacceptable, the Togolese regime allows itself absolutely anything, after having changed the Constitution on the sly,” declared Wednesday afternoon Nathaniel Olympio, president of the Parti des Togolais (PT) and one of the organizers of the conference of press, in a statement sent to AFP. “By depriving the Togolese of choosing their President of the Republic through this constitutional coup, the regime has crossed a red line,” according to Mr. Olympio, calling on “the Togolese to stand up to block this disastrous project.” , he added.
Human rights abuse
The Togolese government is regularly criticized by human rights NGOs for its attacks on freedoms of the press, assembly and expression, and the opposition counts around a hundred political detainees.
The new Constitution now gives the power to Parliament to elect the President of the Republic. The president will be chosen “without debate” by Parliament meeting in congress “for a single mandate of six years”, according to the new text read in the National Assembly and validated with 89 votes for, one against and one abstention.
The text, which brings Togo into its Fifth Republic, also creates the function of “president of the council of ministers”, a sort of prime minister “designated” by the deputies who will be in charge of the country’s sovereign functions. He will be “the leader of the party or the leader of the majority coalition of parties at the end of the legislative elections”.
The last major constitutional change dates back to 1992. Monday’s comes less than a month before the next legislative elections, which are due to be held on April 20 at the same time as the regional elections. The opposition, which boycotted the last legislative election in 2018, announced its participation.
“Power for life”
On Tuesday, the Conference of Bishops of Togo reacted in a press release and questioned the “opportunity or not” of carrying out this reform and the “timing chosen”. She called on Faure Gnassingbé to “postpone the promulgation of the new Constitution and to initiate an inclusive political dialogue, after the results of the next legislative and regional elections”.
According to Togolese historian Michel Goeh-Akue, the new fundamental law is “made so that Faure Gnassingbé has power for life” as “in a monarchical system”. “The dice are loaded in advance,” he judged on Tuesday, stressing that the opposition “does not have much chance for the legislative and regional elections next month as the system is locked”.
Defenders of the new text believe that the country will gain stability, in a West Africa shaken by coups in Mali, Guinea, Burkina Faso and Niger, the political crisis which shook Senegal, or jihadism also present in northern Togo.