By Erick Kaglan, LOME
Togo
Togo’s president has signed a new constitution eliminating presidential elections, his office said late Monday, a move that opponents say will allow him to extend his family’s six-decade rule. Civil society groups in the West African nation have called for protests.
Parliament will now choose the
president. The new constitution comes days after the election commission on
Saturday announced that President Faure Gnassingbe’s ruling party had won a
majority of parliament seats.
There was a crackdown on civic
and media freedoms ahead of the vote. The
government banned protests against the proposed new constitution and
arrested opposition figures. The electoral commission banned the Catholic
Church from deploying election observers. Togo’s media regulator suspended the
accreditation process for foreign journalists.
The new constitution also
increases presidential terms from five to six years and introduces a
single-term limit. But the nearly 20 years that Gnassingbe has served in office
would not count, and the political opposition, religious leaders and civil society
say it’s likely that Gnassingbe will stay in power when his mandate expires in
2025.
Togo has been ruled by the
same family for 57 years, first by Eyadema Gnassingbe and then by his son.
Faure Gnassingbe took office after elections that the opposition described as a
sham.
The new constitution also
creates a figure similar to a prime minister, to be selected by the ruling
party. Critics fear that could become another way for Gnassingbe to extend his
grip on power.
A
group of about 20 civil society organizations in Togo have called for protests
to reinstate the previous constitution.
“We will never accept this new
constitution, even after its promulgation,” David Dosseh, a spokesperson for
the civil society groups, told The Associated Press, calling the 2025 election
“absolutely necessary for the people to choose a new president and finally
achieve a democratic transition in Togo.”
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