Elections are underway in Togo to elect 113 representatives to its administrative assembly and 179 more as regional counsellors.
The elections, initially postponed, are taking place today after Togo promulgated a new amendment to its constitution, changing the governance system of the Francophone country from a presidential to a parliamentary system.
The opposition raised concerns about what they claim is an attempt to entrench the Gnassingbe family in power.
Ghana’s borders with Togo remain closed, with strict surveillance from the Togolese side, while Togo’s 4.1 million voters cast their ballots.
Togo is holding its first elections after changing the governance system from a presidential to a parliamentary one through an amendment to its constitution.
The role of the President now becomes ceremonial, while a prime minister will be elected from the majority in the administrative assembly, the Togolese version of a Parliament, to manage the governance of the country for a non-renewable six-year term.
This will not be the first time Togo has amended its constitution ahead of elections. After the overthrow and assassination of Togo’s first president, Sylvanus Olympio, in 1963, the father of the current President of Togo, Étienne Eyadéma Gnassingbe, ruled the country and died in power in 2005.
His son, Faure Gnassingbé, immediately took over as President and has contested and won four different elections in the past 19 years after several amendments to the Togolese constitution. Ahead of his fifth election, the governing Union pour la République, which has 59 out of the 91 seats in Togo’s Parliament, pushed through a constitutional amendment that the opposition party says will make Faure Gnassingbé another lifetime president of Togo.
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