Togo Delays Senate Elections To February 15
Date
12/28/2024 7:16:08 PM
(MENAFN- The Peninsula)
AFP
Paris: Togo's first senatorial elections have been pushed back by two weeks to February 15 "to allow Political actors to better organise themselves", according to a presidential decree published Friday evening.
Campaigning will officially start January 30.
The vote is one of the last steps towards the implementation of a new constitution, which has been strongly criticised by the opposition and civil society.
Several political parties had asked for the delay to allow them more time to register candidates.
But some major opposition parties, such as the National Alliance for Change (ANC), have said they will boycott the election, which they consider to be part of a "constitutional coup d'etat".
Officially created by a constitutional revision in 2002, the Senate has never been set up.
It will be composed of 61 members, with 41 senators elected by regional and municipal councillors and the rest appointed by the president of the Council of Ministers.
The new constitution, which replaces the direct election of the head of state by a parliamentary system, has been denounced as a way for President Faure Gnassingbe to hold on to power indefinitely.
Gnassingbe is president of the majority party, UNIR, which won 108 of the 113 seats in the April 2024 legislative elections.
He has led the West African country of 8.8 million people since 2005, when he took over from his father who had been in power for 38 years.
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