Togo - 2024 Election - Parliament
Although tiny, Togo commands considerable clout as a maritime trade hub in Africa because of the Lome Port, the gateway into inland West African countries like Burkina Faso. Unrest in Togo could have ripple effects on trade across the region. Elections in Togo have in the past been criticised by opposition groups and activists for being held under a climate of fear, intimidation and violence. In advance of the 2018 elections, the government cracked down hard on thousands of protesters asking for Gnassingbe to step down. It was the same during and after the elections. Security forces arbitrarily harassed and arrested opposition leaders or private citizens suspected of supporting the opposition and some were reportedly tortured in custody.
The regional fight against terrorist group Jama’at Nasr al-Islam wal Muslimin continued and escalated in the Burkina Faso-Togo-Benin triborder area, with frequent incursions of external violent extremist organizations (VEOs) in the north of the country. VEOs conducted attacks in the Savanes Region, especially in the Kpendjal, Kpendjal-West, Cinkasse, and Tone Prefectures. VEOs killed security forces and civilians seen as informants for the government or community leaders. This practice extended to government representatives, village chiefs, and religious leaders who were subjected to repeated threats.
Significant human rights issues included credible reports of: arbitrary or unlawful killings, including extrajudicial killings; torture or cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment by government or on behalf of government; harsh and life-threatening prison conditions; arbitrary arrest or detention; serious problems with the independence of the judiciary; political prisoners or detainees; arbitrary or unlawful interference with privacy; serious restrictions on freedom of expression and media freedom, including unjustified arrests or prosecutions of journalists and enforcement of criminal libel laws to limit expression; substantial interference with the freedom of peaceful assembly and freedom of association; inability of citizens to change their government peacefully through free and fair elections; serious government corruption; extensive gender-based violence, including domestic or intimate partner violence and child, early, and forced marriage; enforcement of laws criminalizing consensual same-sex sexual conduct between adults; and crimes involving violence or threats of violence targeting lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, or intersex persons.
Prison conditions and detention center conditions remained harsh and potentially life threatening due to food shortages, gross overcrowding, physical abuse, and inadequate sanitary conditions. Gross overcrowding was a serious problem. Medical facilities, food, sanitation, ventilation, and lighting were inadequate. According to the inmates’ Legal Club at the Lome Civil Prison, prisoners did not have access to potable water, and disease was widespread.
A shortage of judges and other qualified personnel, as well as official inaction, often resulted in pretrial detention for periods exceeding the maximum sentence for the alleged crime, in many cases by more than 12 months. Human rights organizations reported the use of prolonged preventive detention. A widespread public perception existed that lawyers and litigants bribed judges to influence the outcome of cases. The court system remained overburdened and understaffed.
The Committee for the Liberation of All Political Prisoners in Togo stated there were more than 100 political detainees. These persons did not receive the same protections given to other prisoners and detainees.
Some observers believed gender-based violence, social discrimination, and limited financial resources constrained women, persons with disabilities, and lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, or intersex (LGBTQI+) persons from voting, running for office, serving as electoral monitors, or otherwise participating in political life. LGBTQI+ organizations could register as health groups but could not register to advocate for the human rights of LGBTQI+ persons. Members of southern ethnic groups remained underrepresented in the civil service and the military.
International observation delegations from ECOWAS and the African Union declared the 2020 presidential elections to be generally free and fair, despite some irregularities. The government excluded some groups from observing the election, including the Episcopal Council for Justice and Peace. In 2018 parliamentary elections, ECOWAS commended “the effective conduct of free and transparent legislative elections,” although expressing regret that 14 opposition parties boycotted those elections.
The ruling Union of the Republic (UNIR) dominated politics and maintained firm control over all levels of government. UNIR membership conferred advantages such as better access to government jobs and contracts. The law centralized authority for organizing elections in an independent national election commission but defined its voting board in a way which left it dominated by the UNIR and the government. A reform of the political parties’ law in May 2022 banned dual and naturalized citizens from founding political parties.
On 3 April 2024, President GNASSINGBÉ announced an indefinite postponement of elections amidst controversy over proposed constitutional reforms. The National Assembly approved the new Constitution on 25 March, but GNASSINGBÉ did not sign it and ordered a second reading and vote following public outcry. On 9 April 2024, the election was officially rescheduled for 29 April 2024.
The President was directly elected by plurality vote to serve unlimited 5-year terms. Following the new constitution of 2024, the presidential elections would be indirect, and the President would be limited to a single 6-year term. The Prime Minister is appointed by the President. In the National Assembly, 113 members are directly elected by closed-list proportional representation vote from multi-seat constituencies. All members elected in 2024 would now serve 6-year terms. There are no term limits.
In the 2018 National Assembly election, the Union for the Republic won a majority with 59 of the 91 seats. Five additional parties and 18 independent candidates also won seats. Voter turnout was 59.25%. On 31 January 2024, the National Assembly passed a law increasing the number of seats from 91 to 113.
On 25 March 2024, the National Assembly approved a new Constitution that would drastically change the structure of the Togolese government, shifting from a semi-presidential to a parliamentary system. Lawmakers in a parliament dominated by the governing Union pour le Republic (UNIR) party approved changes to the constitution that dramatically altered how the country’s presidents would be elected, despite fierce outcry from opposition politicians and civil society groups who called the move a constitutional coup. The vote passed a second reading by a count of 87-0. Proponents have argued that it delivers democratic gains like a weakened presidency and a stronger legislature, but the president delayed signing off on it due to its widespread unpopularity.
The new Constitution significantly limited the powers of the President and change the presidential term from 5 years (unlimited) to a single term of 6 years. The President would be indirectly elected by the National Assembly and Senate rather than directly elected. In contrast, the parliamentary majority leader would be named to the new position of President of the Council of Ministers after each election, with no term limits. Members of the National Assembly and Senate (a body defined by the prior Constitution of 1992 but yet to be established) would serve 6-year terms (still without term limits) rather than 5-year terms. The new Constitution also restructures the judicial system and establishes a high authority for transparency and anti-corruption efforts.
The new amendments mean that the president would no longer be elected by popular vote but by members of parliament and that the role itself would now be largely ceremonial, limited to one four-year term. A new, all-powerful prime minister to be appointed by the president for a six-year term would step in instead. It is this role that many experts suspect President Gnassingbe – constitutionally limited to just one more presidential term – is angling for.
Some of the 4.2 million eligible Togolese voters headed to the polls on 29 April 2024 to vote in delayed and controversial parliamentary elections that are causing tensions in a West African region already plagued by instability. Unlike in previous elections in which voters in the country of eight million people elected both legislators to the country’s parliament, as well as the president, this time around, they would only be taking part in an indirect vote that could further lock in the long, repressive rule of President Faure Gnassingbe. The changes are due to a constitutional reset that has angered some of the populace and set off protests.
“That parliament alone will be able to appoint the president ensures that a loyalist will be in the only position to provide a rival power base,” said Afolabi Adekaiyaoja, a researcher at the Center for Democracy and Development (CDD). “This change ensures [Gnassingbe’s] grip on Togo as long as he can control his party and ensure victory. The fact that this has been rubber-stamped, without any allowance for citizens to endorse or reject the proposals, adds to the concern that the ulterior motive is to ensure he retains power.”
Gnassingbe, 57, has been in power since 2005, elected in landslides in four separate elections over the years. He replaced his father, Etienne Eyadema Gnassingbe, who led Togo for nearly 38 years until he died in 2005. The family has held power for a combined 57 years – making it the longest-ruling dynasty government in Africa.
There were several coalitions, formed of major parties including:
- Union pour la Republique or Union for the Republic (UNIR) – the governing party which controls parliament. It won 59 out of 91 seats in the 2018 legislative elections after the opposition parties boycotted the vote, alleging an atmosphere of violence.
- Union des Forces du Changement or Union of Forces of Change (UFC) – the second-biggest party with seven seats in parliament is led by veteran opponent candidate Gilchrist Olympio, son of Togolese founding President Sylvanus Olympio. The party currently has seven seats in parliament. While Gilchrist was a longtime opponent of the older Gnassingbe, he has since allied with President Faure.
- Alliance National pour le changement or National Alliance for Change (ANC) – the main opposition party led by two-time presidential candidate and outspoken government critic, Jean-Pierre Fabre. ANC is part of the Save Togo opposition coalition and has led protests against the constitutional amendment in recent weeks, although those protests have been banned by the government.
- Mouvement Patriotique pour la Democratie et le Developpement or Patriotic Movement for Democracy and Development (MPDD) – a party with two parliament seats, formerly led by one-time Prime Minister Agbeyome Kodjo who died in March.
- Parti Democratique Panafricain or the Democratic Pan-African Party (PDP) and the Mouvement des Republicains Centristes or Movement of Centrist Republicans (MRC) – which have one seat each.
To make an impact, the groups have either allied with the governing party or not participated in elections as a form of protest. In the December 2018 legislative elections, several factions boycotted the vote, refusing to compete, and paving the way for the governing UNIR to maintain a majority. This time though, opposition parties have mobilised massively. In the streets of Lome, supporters clad in party colors and hanging from buses or trucks sang and called for people to come out and vote in the weeks leading up to the vote.
On April 15, authorities banned foreign media from covering the elections, following the arrest and deportation of French journalist Thomas Dietrich, who reporters’ rights groups said was beaten. Independent monitors like the Catholic Church, which is influential in the country, have also been refused monitor status.
President Faure Gnassingbé's Union for the Republic (UNIR) won a landslide victory, winning 108 seats in the 113-member National Assembly. Four other parties shared the remaining five seats. The 2024 parliamentary elections were held in parallel with regional elections. Regional deputies, along with municipal councillors, would elect members of a Senate, a process that has been provided for since constitutional amendments were made in 2002. The National Assembly would serve a six-year term (instead of five years previously), the same duration as the Senate (which is yet to be established).
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