Togolese called to the polls for a presidential election without suspense

The Togolese elect their president on Saturday in a ballot without great suspense which should ensure the outgoing Faure Gnassingbé a fourth term in the face of a divided opposition and which many supporters have announced wanting to boycott a ballot they consider neither free nor transparent .

"A knockout!": In the streets of Lomé in recent days, supporters of the Head of State, recognizable by their t-shirt and sky blue cap, continued to chant what has become over the weeks their main slogan .

"We, the supporters of the big UNIR party, want our champion to pass in the first round, and it's over," said one of them, Komi Ladjo, to AFP.

Some 3.6 million Togolese voters are called to the polls in more than 9,000 polling stations from 7 a.m. to 4 p.m. Ten thousand police and gendarmes will be deployed throughout the country to secure the process.

The results are expected early this week, sources in the Independent National Electoral Commission (Ceni) said Friday evening that everything was ready for the ballot.

Faure Gnassingbé, whose family has been head of this West African country for 53 years, should not face any major obstacle to his re-election, after having already won three polls contested by the opposition and society in 2005, 2010 and 2015.

He faces six other candidates, including the historic leader of the opposition Jean-Pierre Fabre, of the National Alliance for Change (ANC) and the former Prime Minister Agbéyomé Kodjo, who could appear as an outsider despite his profile of man of the seraglio.

The president can boast of a rather positive economic balance sheet, with a stable growth of 5% but his detractors denounce an authoritarian governance and the corruption of those around him when half the population lives below the poverty line, with less $ 1.90 a day.

From the political crisis to the presidential election

Togo also experienced a serious political crisis in 2017 and 2018 with monster demonstrations to demand the resignation of the president, but Parliament finally approved an amendment to the Constitution allowing him to stand for re-election in 2020 and 2025.

The opposition coalition, the C14, which started the protests, did not survive this failure and it is therefore on a divided front that its leaders stand for the vote.

On the streets of Lomé, in Sokodé, in the center of the country, or even in Dapaong, in the north, many said they were "disappointed" by the opposition and warned that they would not vote. the opposition also decided to boycott the election, and the absence of popular enthusiasm dominated the entire campaign.

The giant posters "Faure, believe in our future", posted everywhere, recall how unequal the balance of power with its main rivals, much less visible, like "Fabre, the force of courage and determination" and "Kodjo, the chance of alternation ".

"It's David against Goliath"

"Faure has used everything that belongs to the state. State buses. Even the state telephone company sends us messages:" Vote Faure ". It's David against Goliath," explains Clément, a opposition activist.

The opposition candidates however warned that they would unite to block Faure Gnassingbé in the event of a second round, but this scenario seems rather improbable.

"Our candidate was a candidate several times, but we stole the victory each time! This time, we can no longer steal from him, it is he who will win the victory," wanted to believe Nyagniko, an activist of the ANC.

This week, 500 observers from civil society lost their accreditation, accused of interfering in the electoral process, in addition to the 9,000 observers of the Justice and Peace episcopal council who were also not authorized to monitor the vote.

"This leaves us really perplexed and skeptical about the outcome of this election," regretted David Dosseh, of the Standing Citizen Togo Front (FCTD), who accused the power of organizing an election "behind closed doors".

>> Read also: Togolese presidential: start of the campaign, the collective "Togo Debout" denounces a "masquerade"

The president of Ceni, Tchambakou Ayassor, also announced Thursday "the cancellation of the electronic security system of the voting results" which should be done via software called "SINCERE", feeding doubts and speculation about the holding of a free and transparent ballot.

Some 315 international observers, mainly from the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) and the African Union (AU) will however be present, even if the outgoing president is supported by many of his African peers.

France, a former colonial power, a traditional ally of the Gnassingbé dynasty and present in the neighboring Sahel in the fight against jihadist movements, is particularly sensitive to the stability of Togo in this volatile region.

With AFP

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