Presidential in Togo: still no public funding for candidates

Text by: RFI Follow

In Togo, the first round of the presidential election takes place on February 22. The campaign started 11 days ago, but the candidates have still not received the contribution that the State must pay them to run the campaign, which poses a real problem for some of them, often in lack of resources. The authorities do not explain the reasons for such a delay.

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In Togo, in the absence of State funding, the candidate for the Democratic Alliance for Integral Development (Addi), Aimé Gogué , had to lower his ambitions for the presidential campaign. " We had to review the program ," he explains. Activities have been suspended or they have slowed down in certain areas . ”

Mohamed Tchassona Traoré , the candidate of the Citizen Movement for Democracy and Development (MCD) also had to give up on certain planned events. " We had to reduce the meetings ," he says. Instead of holding large meetings, we hold small meetings. Each candidate today does with the means at hand. It is often the participation of friends. There are sometimes generous people who support candidates . ”

Difficulties also for Faure Gnassingbé

According to a decree, each of the seven candidates must receive 42 million CFA francs, or nearly 64,000 euros, to be able to campaign. The state has not yet sent its contribution to the candidates while the campaign ends in three days. The authorities have not yet provided an explanation. In the entourage of the outgoing president, it is assured that this problem also penalizes the campaign of Faure Gnassingbé.

“ We hope and push for this to happen before the end of the campaign. We have expenses to cover with this money , explains Christian Trimua , the Minister of Human Rights. Naturally, we are asking the government to do its utmost so that we can also get back into our funds . ”

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