Togo Heads to Polls Amid Claims of Power Grab by Gnassingbé

Togo Heads to Polls amidst allegations of power consolidation by President Gnassingbé Approximately four million Togolese citizens are scheduled to participate in legislative and regional elections on Monday, which have been postponed twice.

Critics claim that President Faure Gnassingbe, who has been in power for a long time, is attempting to prolong his control following the approval of contentious amendments to the constitution by Members of Parliament.

Some four million Togolese are to vote Monday for legislative and regional elections that have been twice delayed. Opponents accuse longtime ruler Faure Gnassingbe of seeking to extend his grip on power after MPs signed off on controversial changes to the constitution.

Campaigning was rushed on the back of parliament’s approval of constitutional reforms that would allow lawmakers to elect the president instead of a direct vote by the people.

The move transformed Togo, one of the world’s poorest countries, from a presidential system to a parliamentary one.

It establishes new prime minister-style position called President of the council of ministers, to be held by the leader of the biggest party.

‘Power grab’

Opposition parties denounced the reform as a ploy by Gnassingbé and his ruling Union for the Republic party – which has a majority in the 91-seat National Assembly – to get around presidential term limits.

The 57-year-old leader will likely assume the new position when his term expires next year.

“We are calling on the heads of our institutions to refer the matter to the Constitutional Court,” Maître Claude Amegan, who leads the Collective against impunity in Togo, told RFI.

• Togo parliament approves contested constitutional reforms (Togo Heads to Polls)

Gnassingbe has been in office since 2005 after succeeding his father, who had remained in power for nearly 38 years following a military coup.

He then later won re-election in multiple votes that were condemned as fraudulent by his rivals.

While opposition groups boycotted the last legislative elections in 2018, this time round they have mobilised.

“We are going to the elections,” Jean-Pierre Fabre, president of the National Alliance for Change, told RFI.

ALSO READ: Citizens in Togo are Opposing the New Constitution

“We have noticed that it is worse not to run or to boycott. We are asking the population to vote massively for us, to correct the problems in the electoral register.”

Protest ban (Togo Heads to Polls)

In the lead up to campaigning, protests against the constitutional reforms were banned, further ratcheting up tensions.

Public protests have been outlawed since 2022 after a gendarme was killed in an attack at a market in the capital Lome.

The African Union’s Commission on human and peoples’ rights and rights groups condemned the restrictions on the right to freedom of peaceful assembly and freedom of expression.

MORE: Opponents slam Togo’s new constitution as ploy for Gnassingbé to stay in power

Meanwhile the West African regional bloc Ecowas was accused of failing to enforce democratic rules in its member states after a fact-finding mission sent to Togo last week did not denounce the constitutional reforms.

Alioune Tine, founder of the Dakar-based thinktank AkricaJom Centre, told RFI that Ecowas should sanction heads of states when they seek to hold on to power undemocratically.

Togo became independent in 1960, after being colonised by the German, British and French empires successively.

It has only been through a brief area of democratic freedom in the early 1960s.

“We have roads, particularly in Lome, schools have been built, projects have been initiated for women, young people and farmers,” said Evariste Yalo, 31, a computer technician and UNIR activist.

“The country is moving, in the right way. That’s why the president must continue.”

Regional West African body ECOWAS said it would send a team of observers to Togo for the vote. But the buildup to Monday’s election has seen a tightening of controls.

Opposition attempts to organise protests against the reforms were blocked by authorities.

Togo’s Electoral Commission refused to allow the Togolese Bishops’ Conference to deploy election observers across the country, according to a document seen by AFP.

Togo’s High Authority for Audiovisual and Communication (HAAC) also temporarily suspended all accreditation for the foreign press to cover the elections.