Togo is moving toward limitless Gnassingbe’s dynasty rule away from democracy standards.
Togolese lawmakers adopted a new constitution introduced by members of the ruling party which transitions the West African nation from a presidential to a parliamentary system.
Togo has ratified a new constitution, extending presidential terms by one year but capping the number of terms to one. This move is expected to grant President Faure Gnassingbe an additional year in his 19-year tenure, prolonging his rule beyond initial expectations.
Gnassingbe Eyadema took power through a coup, and upon his passing in 2005 His son assumed office, continuing the familial lineage in governance. Faure Gnassingbe was last re-elected in a 2020 landslide the opposition disputed.
More on this story: Togo elections may trigger unrest
If the new fundamental law goes into effect, the parliamentarians could elect him to a six-year term that would allow him to stay in office until 2031. There is little to suggest that the Gnassingbé dynasty is under threat.
This is a highly likely scenario because his party controls parliament. The new constitution, approved by 89 out of 91 lawmakers, says the president is elected by parliament for a single six-year term.
The new law grants the authority of electing a president “without debate” exclusively to the parliament, and not the general Togolese population.
The new law also creates the position of “President of the Council of Ministers”, who will be tasked with running the day-to-day affairs of the government. Thus, the Chairman of the National Assembly’s committee on constitutional laws, Tchitchao Tchalim, says “practically divests” the president of his powers in favor of the President of the Council of Ministers.
There are doubts that President Faure Gnassingbe, who has been in power since 2005 – following the death of his father Gnassingbe Eyadema is attempting to perpetuate himself in office by absolving Togolese of the right to elect their president.
The president of the council of ministers will either be “the leader of the party which secures the majority during the legislative elections.” Or the leader of the winning coalition of parties.
The legislation, pushed by the ruling Union for the Republic (UNIR), was almost unanimously approved, amid criticism from the opposition, who are poorly represented in the National Assembly.
The next parliamentary election will be held on April 20th, concurrently with regional elections. So, the vote comes less than a month before the next legislative elections in Togo, but it is not yet known when the change — which was approved with 89 votes in favour, one against and one abstention — will come into force.
Togo’s recent history has been dominated by the Gnassingbe clan, Ewe tribe, which has ruled since 1967. Under Eyadéma, political dissidence was brutally suppressed; tens of thousands were summarily executed or “disappeared” by rigidly loyal Kabyé ethnic kinsmen and their allies. Many hundreds of thousands fled abroad, creating large exile communities who continue to fund opposition activities. The short-lived democratic multiparty experiment in the early 1990s collapsed in further bloodshed. And after Eyadéma’s son Faure assumed power, he maintained the fiercely faithful ethnic superstructure of the economic and political realms inherited after his father’s death.
In recent years, several African countries, such as the Central African Republic, Rwanda, the Republic of the Congo, Ivory Coast, and Guinea, have implemented constitutional amendments and other legal modifications to enable their presidents to prolong their stay in power.
