Togo: Legislative elections - timeline
Searching more than 75 years of world history
Timeline
- June 2007. The minister of youth and sports is killed in a helicopter crash.
- September 2006. President Faure Gnassingbé appoints Yawovi (Yao) Agboyibo of the opposition Action Committee for Renewal (CAR) as the new Prime Minister.
- September 2005. It is reported that a new political party, the Democratic Alliance for the Motherland, has been formed by former Prime Minister Messan Agbeyome Kodjo and former Speaker of the National Assembly (the unicameral legislature) Maurice Dahuku Pere.
- August 2005. It is reported that a new political party, the Initiative and Development Party (ID), has been formed.
- June 2005. President Faure Gnassingbé names Edem Kodjo as the new Prime Minister.
- May 2005. Faure Gnassingbé is confirmed as winner of the presidential election held in April.
- April 2005. Presidential elections are held.
- March 2005. President Gnassingbé Eyadema, who died in February after ruling Togo for almost 40 years, is buried in the capital, Lomé.
- February 2005. President Gnassingbé Eyadema dies, aged 69; Togo’s military high command declares one of his many sons, Faure Gnassingbé, as the new president.
- November 2004. The EU agrees to lift a package of economic sanctions imposed on Togo in 1993 in the aftermath of serious rioting and unrest in the country.
- July 2003. President Gnassingbé Eyadema appoints a new cabinet which does not include members of the traditional opposition parties.
- June 2003. Presidential elections result in victory for the incumbent, Gnassingbé Eyadema, candidate of the ruling Togolese People's Rally (RPT).
- December 2002. The National Assembly (the unicameral legislature) approves far-reaching amendments to 36 of the 159 articles of the 1992 multiparty constitution.
- October 2002. Elections to the National Assembly (the unicameral legislature) are held.
- August 2002. It is reported that four opposition parties have formed a new coalition, the FRONT, to contest forthcoming legislative and presidential elections.
- July 2002. The public prosecutor’s office lodges a complaint against former Prime Minister Messan Agbeyome Kodjo, who was dismissed in June.
- June 2002. President Gnassingbe Eyadema issues a decree dismissing Prime Minister Messan Agbeyome Kodjo.
- March 2002. It is announced that legislative elections scheduled to be held on March 10 have been postponed.
- February 2002. The National Assembly approves an amended electoral law which, amongst other things, provided that any presidential candidate must have lived for at least 12 continuous months in Togo prior to an election.
- September 2001. Legislative elections scheduled for October are postponed.
- February 2001. The Independent National Electoral Commission announces that legislative elections will take place in two stages in October.
- July 1999. Opposition parties and the government agree that President Gnassingbé Eyadéma will not run in the 2003 presidential elections; they also agree to hold fresh legislative elections in March 2000 and establish an independent electoral commission.
- June 1999. President Gnassingbé Eyadéma appoints a new government.
- April 1999. Prime Minister Kwassi Klutse tenders his government's resignation after the constitutional court confirms the result of legislative elections held in March.
- March 1999. Elections to the National Assembly are held.
- June 1998. President Gnassingbé Eyadema is declared the absolute winner of Togo’s presidential election.
- August 1996. Edem Kodjo resigns as Prime Minister, following several months of disagreements with President Gnassingbé Eyadema.
- August 1995. Deputies of the main opposition CAR attend an extraordinary session of the National Assembly, thereby ending a nine-month boycott.
- November 1994. The main opposition CAR announce a boycott of the National Assembly.
- April 1994. By-elections are ordered in two constituencies which had returned candidates of the opposition CAR in the February legislative elections.
- March 1994. Official results of the legislative elections held in February give two parties opposed to President Gnassingbé Eyadema a majority in the 81-member National Assembly.
- February 1994. Togo's first multiparty legislative elections are held over two rounds.
- January 1994. Heavy fighting in and around the capital's main military base, the Tokoin barracks in central Lomé, leaves 40 people dead in what officials described as an attempt to assassinate President Gnassingbé Eyadema and overthrow the government.
- August 1993. President Gnassingbé Eyadema is confirmed in office in the country's first multiparty presidential elections, which are marked by the absence of any real challengers and by allegations of electoral fraud.
- April 1993. President Gnassingbé Eyadema and the “crisis government” of Prime Minister Joseph Kokou Koffigoh adopt a new electoral timetable.
- March 1993. A curfew is imposed and the borders with Benin and Ghana are closed after a commando attack on the Tokoin military camp, home of President Gnassingbé Eyadema.
- February 1993. As the gulf between contending political factions widens, France and Germany seek a peaceful solution to the continuing conflict in Togo.
- November 1992. The political struggle between President Gnassingbé Eyadema and the transitional government of Prime Minister Joseph Kokou Koffigoh threatens to develop into a full-blown constitutional crisis.
- October 1992. Troops loyal to President Gnassingbé Eyadema occupy the National Assembly and successfully demand the unfreezing of the assets of Eyadema’s Rassemblement du peuple togolais (RPT), formerly the sole legal party.
- September 1992. Following the extension of the period of transition to multiparty democracy Prime Minister Joseph Kokou Koffigoh officially dissolves his government, but asks its members to continue in a caretaker role.
- May 1992. A group of leading opposition figures is ambushed in the northern region of Assoli by unidentified assailants, in an attack which is regarded as an assassination attempt on Gilchrist Olympio, chairman of the opposition alliance Union of the Forces of Change (UFC).
- April 1992. A new electoral calendar is announced.
- December 1991. Prime Minister Joseph Kokou Koffigoh is seized by rebel soldiers after an attack on his residence in which at least 17 people are killed.
- October 1991. Soldiers loyal to President Gnassingbé Eyadema twice storm the national radio and television station in separate attempts to return him to power.
- August 1991. President Gnassingbé Eyadema’s executive powers are transferred to Prime Minister Koukou Koffigoh; the RPT, the sole legal political party, is dissolved.
- July 1991. A long-awaited national conference to formulate Togo's future political structure finally opens in Lomé.
- April 1991. Rioting continues in Lomé as citizens continue to press for political reform.
- March 1991. Student and opposition movements, refusing to accept the slow pace of democratisation offered by the regime of President Gnassingbé Eyadema, mount several days of campus and street demonstrations.
- January 1991. President Gnassingbé Eyadema announces a political amnesty and a change in the financing of the ruling RPT, Togo’s sole legal party.
- October 1990. Four people die and 34 are injured in violent protests against one-party rule.
- March 1990. Legislative elections are held to the 77-seat National Assembly.
- December 1986. The state security court in Lome sentences 13 people to death (three in absentia, including Olympio) and 14 to life imprisonment for their involvement in the September coup attempt; President Gnassingbé Eyadema, the only candidate, is re-elected for a new seven-year term of office.
- September 1986. An attempted coup against the government of President Gnassingbé Eyadema is defeated by Togolese security forces.
- August-December 1985. A series of bomb attacks occur in Lomé, killing two people and causing damage to prominent buildings.
- December 1979. President Gnassingbé Eyadema, the sole candidate in a presidential election, is re-elected for a seven-year term of office; in a national referendum voters overwhelmingly approve a new constitution, which includes a provision making the RPT the sole legal political party.
- October 1977. Government officials claim that a plot aimed at assassinating President Gnassingbé Eyadema has been foiled.
- January 1974. The phosphate industry is nationalised.
- August 1969. President Gnassingbé Eyadema (also known as Etienne Eyadema) announces that only one political party will operate in Togo.
- January 1967. Lt-Col Gnassingbé Eyadema (also known as Etienne Eyadema), the chief of staff of Togo's armed forces, seizes power in a bloodless military coup.
- January 1963. President Sylvanus Olympio is assassinated and his government is overthrown in a military uprising in Lomé.
- April 1961. In the first elections after the achievement of independence from French rule Sylvanus Olympio is elected as Togo’s president for a seven-year term in office.
- April 1960. In accordance with a UN General Assembly resolution in December 1959, the French-administered trust territory of Togoland achieves independence on April 27 as the Republic of Togo.
