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Parliamentary elections were held in Togo on 29 April 2024 to elect the 113 members of the National Assembly, [1] [2] alongside the first regional elections in the country. [3] The ruling Union for the Republic won 108 of the 113 seats.
Togo's political life is dominated by the ruling Union for the Republic (UNIR), whose leader Faure Gnassingbé has been in power since the death of his father Gnassingbé Eyadéma in 2005. Faure Gnassingbé was initially interim president before being elected to the presidency later the same year, then re-elected in 2010 and 2015. This "dynastic democracy" is maintained from election to election through the repression of the opposition, election fraud and the modification of the constitution. [4] [5]
The previous parliamentary elections in 2018 were boycotted by the C14 Alliance, the main opposition group of fourteen parties, following irregularities in the preparation of the vote and the refusal of Gnassingbé to abandon his constitutional revision project. [6] [7] Gnassingbé had aimed to reinstate the limit on the number of presidential terms while "resetting it to zero", allowing him to remain in power beyond his third term, which ended in 2020. [8] The 2018 parliamentary election campaign was marked by repression against demonstrators, and several deaths, including at least three by gunfire, were reported, leading the government to ban all marches or public gatherings in mid-December. [9] In the absence of any real opponents, UNIR retained its absolute majority, winning 59 of the 91 seats. The parliament also saw a sharp increase in the number of independent deputies, with 18 winning seats. The Union of Forces for Change (UFC) and four other groups shared the remaining seats. [10] [11]
Despite the absolute majority obtained, the election result was initially considered a failure for UNIR as it failed to win the four-fifths majority of seats necessary for a constitutional amendment to be passed by parliamentary means alone. However, on 8 May 2019 the government passed a constitutional amendment almost unanimously, which allowed Gnassingbé to remain in office until 2030. [12] Gnassingbé was unsurprisingly re-elected in the first round of the 2020 presidential elections with more than 70% of the vote, a result contested by the opposition which accused the government of electoral fraud. [13] On 25 March the Constitutional Court validated 2,350 applications for 113 seats. [14]
The election was initially supposed to be held on 13 April 2024 before being postponed by President Gnassingbé to 20 April, with campaigning to run from 4 to 18 April. [15] [16] On 3 April, Gnassingbé again ordered the indefinite postponement of the election to allow "consultations" over a controversial attempt at constitutional reform that would replace the presidential system with a parliamentary one, place executive powers in the office of the prime minister, and replace the direct election of the presidency with a vote by parliament. [17] [18] In response, four opposition parties and a civil society group called for protests to be held from 11 to 13 April and described the postponement as a maneuver by the regime to "endorse its own constitutional coup". [19] On 9 April, the government announced that the election would be held on 29 April. [1] It also banned a planned protest by opposition groups against the postponement and the constitutional amendments scheduled on 11 to 13 April. [20]
The 113 members of the National Assembly are elected by closed list proportional representation from 39 multi-member constituencies ranging in size from two to ten seats. Seats are allocated using the highest averages method. [21] Nearly 4.2 million Togolese are registered to vote. [22] Of the 2,348 candidates for the legislative elections, 593 of them are women, while 438 women are also running in regional elections. [23] Campaigning began on 13 April [24] and ran until 28 April. [25]
Foreign journalists were barred by Togolese authorities from covering the election. [26] Thomas Dietrich, a French journalist who tried to cover the election was arrested, assaulted and expelled from the country. [27] [28] On 23 April, the Catholic Church's request to deploy observers during the vote was rejected by the Electoral Commission. [29] ECOWAS said that it would send observers to monitor the election [30] and deployed a “pre-election assessment” team. [27] The African Union was also allowed to send an observer mission. [31]
Voting at around 14,200 polling stations ran from 07:00 to 16:00 on 29 April, with provisional results expected by 5 May. [32] Some voters reported that the process was disorganized, and some were unable to find their names on the register. [33] The country's borders were closed, while 12,000 members of the security forces were deployed to safeguard the voting process. [28] Concerns were raised over aspects of the election and turnout. An opposition spokesperson compared the lack of "real opposition" in the election to the political situation in North Korea. Turnout also varied per region, with areas of Lomé recording a minimum of 33% participation in voting while UNIR strongholds in the north of the country registered turnouts reaching 97%. [34]
Provisional results showed by the Togolese electoral commission on 4 May showed that UNIR had won 108 of the 113 seats in parliament, while turnout was estimated at 61%. [35] UNIR also won 137 out of 179 regional councillors in the regional elections held the same day. [36] The results were validated by the Constitutional Court on 14 May. [37]
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|---|---|---|---|---|
| Party | Votes | % | Seats | |
| Union for the Republic | 108 | |||
| Alliance of Democrats for Integral Development | 2 | |||
| National Alliance for Change | 1 | |||
| Dynamic for the Majority of the People | 1 | |||
| Democratic Forces for the Republic | 1 | |||
| Africa Togo Ecology | 0 | |||
| Emerging Leaders' Circle | 0 | |||
| Movement of Centrist Republicans | 0 | |||
| New Togolese Commitment | 0 | |||
| Pan-African Democratic Party | 0 | |||
| Pan-African Patriotic Convergence | 0 | |||
| Party for Democracy and Renewal | 0 | |||
| Patriotic Movement for Democracy and Development | 0 | |||
| Union of Nationalists for Work | 0 | |||
| Independents | 0 | |||
| Total | 113 | |||
| Total votes | 2,565,623 | – | ||
| Registered voters/turnout | 4,203,711 | 61.03 | ||
| Source: Togo Breaking News | ||||
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".
Politics of Togo takes place in a framework of a presidential republic, whereby the President of Togo is both head of state and head of government. Executive power is exercised by the government. Legislative power is vested in both the government and parliament. After independence, the party system was dominated first by the authoritarian Rally for the Togolese People, and later by its successor party, Union for the Republic.
Elections in Togo take place within the framework of a presidential system. Both the President and the National Assembly are directly elected by voters. Togo is a one party dominant state with the Union for the Republic in power.
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.
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.
The Union of Forces for Change is an opposition political party in Togo. The President of the UFC was Gilchrist Olympio 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 Rally of the Togolese People was the ruling political party in Togo from 1969 to 2012. It was founded by President Gnassingbé Eyadéma and headed by his son, President Faure Gnassingbé, after the former's death in 2005. Faure Gnassingbé replaced the RPT with a new ruling party, the Union for the Republic (UNIR), in April 2012, dissolving the RPT.
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.
Léopold Messan Kokou Gnininvi is a Togolese politician and the Secretary-General of the Democratic Convention of African Peoples (CDPA). A long-time opposition leader in Togo, he served in the government as Minister of State for Mines and Energy from 2006 to 2007, Minister of State for Foreign Affairs and Regional Integration from 2007 to 2008, and Minister of State for Industry, Crafts, and Technological Innovations from 2008 to 2009.
Komi Sélom Klassou is a Togolese politician who served as Prime Minister of Togo from 2015 to 2020. A member of the ruling Union for the Republic (UNIR), he served as Minister of Culture, Youth and Sports from 2000 to 2003, as Minister of Primary and Secondary Education from 2003 to 2007, and as First Vice-President of the National Assembly from 2007 to 2015.
Maurice Dahuku Péré was a Togolese politician who was President of the National Assembly of Togo from 1994 to 1999. He was the national president of the Democratic Alliance for the Fatherland, an opposition party.
Dama Dramani is a Togolese politician who was the President of the National Assembly of Togo from 2013 to 2018. He was Secretary-General of the Rally of the Togolese People (RPT), the ruling party, from 2003 to 2006, and following the 2007 parliamentary election he was President of the RPT Parliamentary Group in the National Assembly.
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.
Jean-Pierre Fabre is a Togolese politician and the President of Togo's main opposition party, the National Alliance for Change.
Parliamentary elections were held in Togo on 25 July 2013. The ruling Union for the Republic (UNIR) won 62 of the 91 seats in the National Assembly.
The 2017–18 Togolese protests were a significant representation of civil unrest in Togo and against the 50 year rule of the father-son combination of Gnassingbé Eyadéma and Faure Gnassingbé. The protesters demanded that the president honour the 1992 constitution, and demanding that he step down immediately. Gnassingbé offered the protesters the option of enacting the two-term limit set in the constitution effective from 2018, thus ensuring that he could stay in power until 2030. This has been rejected by the opposition. However, on 8 May 2019 the Togolese Parliament voted unanimously to accept this amendment and imposed this non-retroactive term limit on the president's office.
Protests against Faure Gnassingbé have occurred throughout Togo, starting when President Faure Gnassingbé assumed power after the death of his father Gnassingbé Eyadéma in February 2005.
Presidential elections were held in Togo on 22 February 2020. Incumbent president Faure Gnassingbé of the Union for the Republic (UPR) was re-elected for his fourth term with 71% of the vote in the first round. His closest challenger was Agbéyomé Kodjo, a former prime minister and leader of the newly established Patriotic Movement for Democracy and Development, who received 19% of the vote.
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