Union of Forces for Change Union des Forces du Changement | |
---|---|
Abbreviation | UFC |
President | Jean-Pierre Fabre (since 2010) Gilchrist Olympio (1992–2010) |
Founded | 1 February 1992 |
Headquarters | 59 Rue Koudadzé, Quartier Lom-Nava, Lomé |
Ideology | Social democracy |
Political position | Centre-left |
Colours | Yellow |
National Assembly | 7 / 91 |
Website | |
www | |
The Union of Forces for Change (French : Union des Forces du Changement) is an opposition political party in Togo. The President of the UFC was Gilchrist Olympio [1] and its Secretary-General was Jean-Pierre Fabre until 10 August 2010. Olympio is the son of the first President of Togo, Sylvanus Olympio, who was assassinated in a 1963 coup. On 10 August 2010, Jean-Pierre Fabre was elected as President of the party.
The UFC was founded by Olympio as a federation of parties on 1 February 1992. [2] Olympio was barred from standing in the August 1993 presidential election on a technicality. [1] The UFC boycotted the February 1994 parliamentary election. [2] Olympio was able to run in the June 1998 presidential election, placing second with 34% of the vote, behind long-time President Gnassingbé Eyadéma, according to official results; [3] the UFC alleged fraud, however. The UFC boycotted the March 1999 parliamentary election, [4] and it also participated in an opposition boycott of the next parliamentary election, held on 27 October 2002. [4] [5]
Emmanuel Bob-Akitani, the First Vice-president of the UFC, was the main opposition candidate in the June 2003 presidential election and the April 2005 presidential election, acting as a surrogate candidate for Olympio, who was banned from running because he had lived in exile for several years. He officially received 38.1% of the vote on the latter occasion, losing to Faure Gnassingbé, son of the deceased Eyadéma, amidst opposition claims of a rigged vote.
The UFC decided not to join the national unity government under Prime Minister Yawovi Agboyibo in September 2006, although many in the party were reportedly unhappy with Olympio's decision in this regard. The party's Second Vice-president, Amah Gnassingbé, accepted a post in the government [6] as Minister of State [7] and was suspended from the UFC as a result. [8]
The party participated in the October 2007 parliamentary election, the first time it participated in a parliamentary election since multiparty elections began to be held in the early 1990s. [9] The party won 27 out of 81 seats, behind the ruling Rally of the Togolese People (RPT), which won a majority. [10] The UFC alleged irregularities in vote counting [11] and, following the confirmation of the results by the Constitutional Court, UFC Secretary-General Jean-Pierre Fabré, described the results as "neither credible nor acceptable" and said that they did not represent the people's will. [12] [13]
At the UFC's Second Ordinary Congress, held in Nyékonakpoé, Lomé on 18–19 July 2008, [14] Olympio was re-elected as National President of the UFC; he was also unanimously chosen as the party's candidate for the 2010 presidential election. Also at this congress, Jean-Pierre Fabré was re-elected as Secretary-General; Patrick Lawson was elected as First Vice-president, while Bob-Akitani was named Honorary President. [15]
Election | Party candidate | Votes | % | Results |
---|---|---|---|---|
1998 | Gilchrist Olympio | 532,771 | 34.2% | Lost |
2003 | Emmanuel Bob-Akitani | 784,102 | 33.7% | Lost |
2005 | 841,797 | 38.2% | Lost | |
2010 | Jean-Pierre Fabre | 692,584 | 33.9% | Lost |
Election | Party leader | Votes | % | Seats | +/– | Position | Government |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1994 | Gilchrist Olympio | Boycotted | 0 / 81 | Extra-parliamentary | |||
1999 | 0 / 81 | Extra-parliamentary | |||||
2002 | 0 / 81 | Extra-parliamentary | |||||
2007 | 867,507 | 37.79% | 27 / 81 | 27 | 2nd | Opposition | |
2013 | 145,359 | 7.7% | 3 / 67 | 24 | 4th | Opposition | |
2018 | 7 / 91 | 4 | 2nd | Opposition |
The history of Togo can be traced to archaeological finds which indicate that ancient local tribes were able to produce pottery and process tin. During the period from the 11th century to the 16th century, the Ewé, the Mina, the Gun, and various other tribes entered the region. Most of them settled in coastal areas. The Portuguese arrived in the late 15th century, followed by other European powers. Until the 19th century, the coastal region was a major slave trade centre, earning Togo and the surrounding region the name "The Slave Coast".
Gnassingbé Eyadéma was a Togolese military officer and politician who was the president of Togo from 1967 until his death in 2005, after which he was immediately succeeded by his son, Faure Gnassingbé.
Faure Essozimna Gnassingbé is a Togolese politician who has been the president of Togo since 2005. Before assuming the presidency, he was appointed by his father, President Gnassingbé Eyadéma, as Minister of Equipment, Mines, Posts, and Telecommunications, serving from 2003 to 2005.
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Édouard Kodjovi "Edem" Kodjo, was a Togolese politician and diplomat. He was Secretary-General of the Organisation of African Unity from 1978 to 1983; later, in Togo, he was a prominent opposition leader after the introduction of multi-party politics. He served as Prime Minister from 1994 to 1996 and again from 2005 to 2006. Kodjo was President of the Patriotic Pan-African Convergence (CPP). Kodjo died on April 11, 2020, in Paris.
Gilchrist Olympio is a Togolese politician who was a long-time opponent of the regime of Gnassingbé Eyadéma and was President of the Union of Forces for Change (UFC), Togo's main opposition party from the 1990s til 2013. Olympio is the son of Sylvanus Olympio, Togo's first President, who was assassinated in a 1963 coup. He is now an ally of the current regime of Faure Gnassingbe, the son of the late President.
Emmanuel Bob-Akitani was a Togolese politician who was the main opposition candidate in the 2003 and 2005 Togolese presidential elections. He was the Honorary President of the Union of Forces for Change (UFC).
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Yawovi Madji Agboyibo was a Togolese attorney and politician. He served as Prime Minister of Togo from September 2006 to December 2007 and was National President of the Action Committee for Renewal (CAR), an opposition political party, from 1991 to 2008. He was the Honorary President of the CAR.
Parliamentary elections were held in Togo on October 14, 2007 for the 81 seats in the National Assembly. There were over 2,000 candidates, with 32 parties and 41 lists of independent candidates competing. The ruling Rally of the Togolese People (RPT) was victorious, winning a majority of 50 seats. The remaining seats were won by opposition parties; the Union of the Forces of Change (UFC) won 27 seats and the Action Committee for Renewal (CAR) won four seats. They were the first parliamentary elections since the beginning of multiparty politics in the early 1990s in which all major parties participated.
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Presidential elections were held in Togo on 4 March 2010. Incumbent President Faure Gnassingbé—who won his first term in a presidential election that followed the death of his father, long-time President Gnassingbé Eyadema, in 2005—faced radical opposition candidate Jean-Pierre Fabre, the Secretary-General of the Union of the Forces of Change (UFC), as well as several minor opposition candidates.
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