Several opposition parties and a civil society group in Togo called for three days of demonstrations on Thursday April 4 against the postponement of legislative and regional elections, the day after the arrest of nine opponents and in a context of growing tensions since the adoption of a new Constitution at the end of March.

Four opposition parties (ADDI, ANC, FDR and PSR) and a civil society organization (FCTD) "call on the populations to join them for a major protest demonstration on April 11, 12 and 13", in a published statement Thursday, and "ask the candidates to continue the campaign throughout the national territory".

In Togo, demonstrations have been banned since 2022, after an attack on the large market in Lomé during which a gendarme was killed. 

This call to demonstrate comes the day after the announcement of the postponement of the legislative and regional elections, initially scheduled for April 20, in order, according to the authorities, to give time to the National Assembly to study a second time the draft new Constitution which it adopted on March 25. 

After the outcry caused by this new Constitution, which moves Togo from a presidential regime to a parliamentary regime, President Faure Gnassingbé - in power since 2005 following his father who held the supreme office for nearly 38 years old - last week ordered a new examination of the text by the deputies.

Nine arrests

In addition, nine people were arrested on Wednesday. Thomas Kokou N'soukpoe, spokesperson for Dynamique Monseigneur Kpodzro (DMK, a group of opposition parties and civil society) told AFP on Thursday that "nine members of the DMK were arrested yesterday while They were raising awareness among people in the Akodessêwa market about the illegality of the constitutional revision.”

The information was confirmed in the evening by the public prosecutor Talaka Mawama in a press release read on state television. “While no public demonstration had been authorized, individuals were surprised, distributing leaflets and chanting slogans inciting popular revolt,” declared the prosecutor before specifying that “a judicial investigation was opened” .

"Contempt"

The postponement of the elections, without any new date being announced, "is a sign of contempt for the candidates who have prepared and who have incurred enormous costs, it is a headlong rush", declared to AFP Brigitte Adjamagbo-Johnson, coordinator of the Dynamics for the Majority of the People (DMP, a group of opposition political parties and civil society organizations).

The opposition fears that the new Constitution, which gives the National Assembly the power to directly elect the president and the head of government, will leave the way clear for the extension of President Faure Gnassingbé at the head of the country. 

“The Togolese are angry and they want this constitutional bill to be purely and simply withdrawn,” assured AFP Nathaniel Olympio, president of the Parti des Togolais (PT), who believes that the government is “in the process of create disorder in this country. “The Togolese are vigilant. This time, this constitutional coup will not happen,” he added.

Legislative and regional elections were supposed to be held in December, then were set for April 12 before being postponed to April 20. The opposition, which boycotted the last legislative elections in 2018, plans to participate massively in the vote this year.

“A National Assembly whose mandate has ended and which is awaiting imminent renewal cannot afford to carry out such an important revision of the fundamental law,” David Dosseh, spokesperson for the Front, told AFP. citizen of Togo standing (FCTF, large grouping of civil society).

“We are in complete fraud of the Constitution,” historian Michel Goeh-Akue told AFP on Thursday, who believes that “changing the Constitution requires a referendum.”

Legislative journey

Constitutional reform has already caused tensions: Togolese gendarmes interrupted a recent press conference organized by around thirty opposition parties and civil society groups, 48 ​​hours after the adoption of the new Constitution at first reading by MPs.

The Minister of Public Service, Gilbert Bawara, defended the second reading of the text in the Assembly on Thursday on a local private radio station. “The legislative circuit relating to this constitutional reform is not yet completed,” he declared, adding that he believed that the legislative elections would be organized “on the basis of the current constitutional reform.”

Political tensions in Togo are part of a West Africa shaken by coups in Mali, Guinea, Burkina Faso and Niger, and jihadism, also present in northern Togo.

With AFP

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