🇹🇬 Togo: MPs definitively adopt a new Constitution

The text, voted on March 25, was given a second reading on Friday April 19 at the request of the President of the Republic, Faure Gnassingbé. After amending a number of articles, the text, which changes the Togolese system to a parliamentary one, was adopted by 87 votes.

A vote with 87 votes for, zero against. In principle, as soonhttps://s.rfi.fr/media/display/8927ac9a-d35d-11ee-a1a2-005056bfb2b6/w:980/p:16x9/National_Assembly_of_Togo_entrance_2019.jpg as the text is promulgated - President Gnassingbé has fifteen days from this Friday evening's vote to do so - Togo will become a Fifth Republic.

The new Constitution abolishes direct presidential elections. In other words, citizens will no longer directly choose the Head of State. Instead, parliamentarians will elect the President of the Republic for a four-year term.

The President of the Council of Ministers - a kind of Prime Minister with real power - will be chosen from the majority party. And his or her term of office will be linked to that of deputies and senators, which is six years.

Government Commissioner Pacôme Adjourouvi praised "the spirit of citizenship that prevailed during the revision process ".

Part of the opposition and civil society denounced this change as soon as the text was examined at first reading in the assembly on March 25, suspecting that the head of state, Faure Gnassingbé, who has been in power for 19 years, wanted to remain at the head of the country. " This adoption confirms that the regime is not listening to the Togolese people.

It has preferred to carry out a veritable passage en force, a constitutional coup d'état which shows the true nature of this regime ", reacted opposition politician Brigitte Kafui Adjamagbo-Johnson, a lawyer and member of the Dynamique pour la majorité du peuple (DMP), for RFI. " At the DMP, we're not giving up at all. Together with the other opposition forces, we have taken legal action before the ECOWAS Court of Justice. " On the political front, she expects the Togolese people to mobilize and " seize the upcoming elections to punish the regime ".

Critics also denounce the fact that this fundamental text is being voted on by MPs whose term of office has expired. Legislative elections take place in ten days' time, with regional elections being held for the first time in Togo.

#Togo

@africaintel