Headlines: end of presidential campaign in Togo

Audio 03:51

By: Frédéric Couteau Follow

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“ They are 7 on the starting line , notes Le Point Afrique . On Saturday, the Togolese will have to choose who among the 7 candidates (…) will lead the country for five years. Even if public funding intended for them has been slow in arriving, the 7 presidential candidates have campaigned across the country in recent days, two years after a serious political crisis. In 2017 and 2018, a protest of scale, harshly repressed, had indeed reached Togo , recalls Le Point Afrique. In 2018, more than 100,000 people had walked the streets of Lomé. Their claim ? The abandonment of the draft revision of the Constitution, which especially allowed President Faure Gnassingbé to stand for re-election in 2020 and 2025, past and current mandates are not taken into account. It is therefore not surprising that the head of state, in power for 15 years, submitted his candidacy this year. "

The presidential campaign was rather lackluster… This is what the special envoy to Lomé of the Burkinabè news site WakatSéra notes : “ Is it because they did not receive the 42 million CFA francs in time, usually used by the state as a subsidy to run the electoral campaign, that the streets of Lomé are almost hopelessly empty of their posters ? No doubt ! Because, apart from the many photos of Faure Gnassingbé, whose T-shirts and even cars are flocked, or the life-size posters he shares in certain areas with the historic opponent, Jean-Pierre Fabre, the images of others candidates discover themselves (almost) by chance (…). "

What enthusiasm?

In any case, for Le Pays , still in Burkina, now: “ The hardest part remains to be achieved ; starting with the challenge of mobilization. Jaded by electoral consultations still without suspense in a country where the alternation is almost a totem, the Togolese will rush to the polling stations on Saturday ?, Wonders the daily Ouagalais. And if the challenge of mobilization was met, what guarantee would there be that the voices of voters critical of power really count against a president who cannot imagine another life outside of power and who seems ready to do anything to cling to his throne ? How can we convince all those undecided that they will never again have to deal with these ubiquitous scenes where ballot boxes were taken away overnight in electoral districts, because they were hostile to the ruling power ? "

As for the Togolese opposition, continues Le Pays , " Undermined by its quarrels of ego and still incapable of uniting to overcome decades of reign of the Gnassingbé family, does it not continue to spread its differences in the public square? In any case, in the immediate future , what it has better to do, estimates the Burkinabe daily, is to remain vigilant for the next few hours. Opponents of Faure Gnassingbé must give themselves all the means to deploy their representatives in all the polling stations. But much more, Jean-Pierre Fabre and company must surround themselves with precautions to compile the results in real time to protect themselves against possible fraud. "

Fraud?

Moreover, the same Jean-Pierre Fabre publicly stated yesterday that he was afraid of electoral fraud.

" The least that can be said is that the presidential election on Saturday, February 22, 2020 risks experiencing the same fate as that of April 25, 2015, exclaims the Togolese news site Ici Lomé . According to the candidate Jean-Pierre Fabre, national president of the ANC, the regime is currently oiling its fraud machine to ensure a fourth term for the outgoing president, Faure Gnassingbé. "Everyone should expect fraud, " he said. Despite everything , here again notes Lomé, the candidate of the orange party remains convinced that he will win this presidential election. "I'm going to these February 22 elections to win, " said Jean-Pierre Fabre. "

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