Togo: Legislative elections - full text
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Elections to Togo’s 81-member National Assembly (the unicameral legislature) held on Oct. 14 were the first not to have been boycotted by opposition parties in nearly 10 years. Opposition parties had boycotted the election process since June 1998, when former President Gnassingbé Eyadema was declared the absolute winner of Togo’s presidential election.
Over 2,000 candidates representing 32 parties stood for election. Provisional results released by the national electoral commission on Oct. 17 indicated that the ruling Rally of the Togolese People (RPT) had secured 49 of the 81 seats, an overall majority. The opposition Union of Forces for Change (UFC) had won 21 seats, while Prime Minister Yawovi (Yao) Agboyibo’s Action Committee for Renewal (CAR) had won four. Vote counting had not been completed in two constituencies, including in Lomé (the capital), leaving seven seats still to be awarded. Turnout was estimated at 95 per cent.
Immediate Context
The October elections were notable for having proceeded largely peacefully. Elections in Togo were frequently marred by political violence, allegations of vote rigging, and other controversies. The country had been ruled for 38 years by the authoritarian President Gnassingbé Eyadema. When Eyadema died, aged 69, in February 2005 he was succeeded by Faure Gnassingbe, one of his many sons. Widespread international criticism of Faure Gnassingbé's appointment, however, prompted him to agree to hold a presidential election. He won the election, in April 2005, but allegations of vote rigging and violence between rival supporters were widespread.
Faure Gnassingbé in June 2005 named Edem Kodjo, the leader of the moderate opposition Patriotic Pan-African Convergence (CPP), as the new prime minister. Protracted attempts by the opposition to introduce wider democratic reforms led in August 2006 to the signing of an agreement with the government, under which opposition parties were invited to join a transitional "unity" administration. In September 2006, when Faure Gnassingbé appointed Yawovi (Yao) Agboyibo, an historic opponent of the regime of Gnassingbé's father, as the new prime minister, Cabinet Director Pascal Bodlona said that the appointment was a "courageous act" aimed at fostering "national reconciliation".
The Independent National Electoral Commission (CENI) in Togo on July 4 announced that legislative elections, scheduled for June but later rescheduled for Aug. 5, had once again been delayed. The latest delay was necessary to allow the authorities sufficient time to complete “an electoral census and display electoral lists”, originally scheduled for completion by July 9, the African Press Agency reported on July 7.
Reaction and Outlook
The government of Togo expressed optimism that by overseeing free and fair elections international donors would be willing to grant aid to Togo once more. The EU had stopped giving aid in 1993, citing the poor democratic record of then president Gnassingbe Eyadema. The holding of free and fair legislative elections was a crucial condition set by the EU for a resumption of normal diplomatic relations with Togo, the Xinhua news agency had reported on July 18. In February 1993, France and Germany suspended economic aid operations in Togo after at least 300,000 people–around half the population of Lomé –were forced to flee into neighbouring Ghana and Benin to escape political violence.
“A peaceful Togo is a definitive and non-reversible option. If there are still sceptics around I'll do everything to convince them,” President Faure Gnassingbe announced after voting in Lomé (the capital), EUbusiness reported on Oct. 14.
Historical Context
The Republic of Togo was established in April 1960, when the former French-administered trust territory of Togoland achieved independence. In Togo’s first elections since it achieved independence, in April 1961, Sylvanus Olympio won a seven-year term in office as the country’s president, but he was assassinated during a military uprising which ousted his government in January 1963. Olympio was immediately replaced as President by Nicolas Grunitzky, but he too was removed from power, in a bloodless military coup led by Lt-Col Gnassingbé Eyadema (also known as Etienne Eyadema), then chief of Togo’s armed forces, in January 1967. Upon seizing the presidency, Eyadema suspended Togo’s constitution and dissolved its legislature. In August 1969, Eyadema announced plans to introduce one-party politics and in January 1974, he revealed plans to nationalise the phosphate industry.
Eyadema was re-elected as the president in December 1979, but his authoritarian rule led to widespread discontent, which in the 1980s and early 1990s prompted a series of bomb attacks in Lomé, an attempted coup, rioting, and violent protests against him.
In August 1991, in the face of overwhelming opposition, Eyadema was stripped of his presidential powers and Joseph Koukou Koffigoh was appointed as Togo’s prime minister to head a new “transitional government” (known as the High Council of the Republic--HCR). The HCR was dissolved, however, shortly after Koukou Koffigoh was seized by rebel soldiers during an attack on his residence in which at least 17 people were killed, meaning that Eyadema had effectively held onto power.
In August 1993, President Eyadema won Togo’s first multiparty presidential elections, which were marked by the absence of any serious challengers and by allegations of electoral fraud. The country’s first multiparty legislative elections, held over two rounds in February 1994, were also regarded as controversial and marred by violence. Eyadema was re-elected as president in 1998 and 2003. He died in February 2005, after succumbing to a heart attack while en route to France for emergency medical treatment.
