Togo
New Togolese electoral code "threatens democracy"

afrol News, 15 February - An amendment to the Togolese electoral code, approved by Parliament earlier this week, has been heavily criticised by the international community. UN Secretary-General, Kofi Annan, voiced his concern over "the stalemate of the electoral process in Togo and the breakdown of the political consensus in the country." 

A spokesperson for the Secretary-General said on Wednesday that Annan had conveyed his concern during a meeting on Monday with the Foreign Minister of Togo, Koffi Panou. Also the EU announced on Friday it would suspend support to the Togolese electoral process and France regretted the legislative changes. The US and Germany said the changes "threatened democracy" in Togo.

Changes to Togo's electoral code, approved by parliament on 8 February ahead of legislative elections next month, are "aimed at facilitating the holding of polls and the functioning of the country's electoral commission," a UN agency quoted a communiqué by the Togolese legislators. The amendment was approved under sharp protest from the parliamentary opposition.

Under the new electoral code, the National Electoral Commission (CENI) is reduced from 20 to 10 members, but will still be equally divided between the opposition and government-supporting parties. A major change is however that the CENI will no longer take decisions by consensus but by simple majority. The Togolese legislators claim a consensus was "often hard to reach" while the opposition held this to be a guarantee for the commission's incorruptibility.

Another novelty favouring the ruling party is that elections now will be limited to a single round, the winner being the candidate with the highest number of votes. Until now, a second round was held if no candidate obtained more than 50 percent of the votes. The reasons for this change include the high cost of elections, according to the communiqué cited by the UN agency. 

Further, legislative and presidential candidates must be solely of Togolese nationality and those with multiple nationalities will be obliged to relinquish the others. To be eligible for the presidency, candidates must have resided in Togo for a full year before the poll. President Gnassingbé Eyadema's main opponent, Gilchrist Olympio, has lived in exile for years. 

Reactions to this sudden change of the electoral code are based on the promises by the Togolese government to reach a political consensus in the country. In the view of Kofi Annan, "the unilateral amendment by the government of the Electoral Code is not conducive to the creation of favourable conditions for the holding of the elections."

Recalling that a technical evaluation mission that visited Togo last year had "certainly not recommended the amendment of the Constitution or of the Electoral Code," the Secretary-General asked all parties concerned to avoid any misinterpretation of the mission's report, according to a UN statement. 

Annan also called on "all the Togolese parties to refrain from any action likely to disturb the social peace and remains convinced that the solution to the present deadlock lies in a return to the consensus of the Lomé Framework Agreement."

The French Foreign Ministry said in a communiqué on 13 February that the effort to resolve Togo's political crisis was based "on decision-making by consensus, the only solution for moving beyond the lasting mistrust that exists between actors of the inter-Togolese dialogue", adding that the code "jeopardises the inter-Togolese dialogue which we have been supporting for almost three years". 

Sources: Based on UN sources, French govt. and afrol archives

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