West African Election Series:  Togo Parliamentary Elections

Voters in Togo will be voting in parliamentary elections on 29 April 2024 amidst a proposed controversial constitutional amendment. The last parliamentary elections were held in 2018 to vote for 91 members of the National Assembly. The election had a 59% voter turnout of 3,155,837 registered voters. The proposed Constitutional amendments, which have been paused by President Gnassingbe and are subject to more consultations, would have been held in a different context. The proposed new Constitution effectively changed the system of government from a Presidential to a Parliamentary one. This will see the President go from having five-year unlimited terms and being voted through direct elections to a system where the President will serve six years of single terms and is to be voted by the National Assembly and the Senate. Opposition parties, Civil society, and citizens saw the constitutional amendment as a means for President Gnassingbe to perpetuate his stay in power like his father, who was in power from 1967 until he died in 2005. The National Assembly increased the number of parliamentary seats from 91 to 113 through a law passed in January 2024, meaning that for the 2024 National Assembly, 113 seats will be up for election. 2,348 candidates were cleared to contest the polls by the Togo Constitutional Court in January 2024. Togo is a multi-party democracy, and the law allows for independent candidacy. The present composition of the National Assembly along party lines is as follows.

With a population of  8,848,700 as of 2022 and over 4 million registered voters, Togo has had fair voter turnout in the last two elections, with 59% in the 2018 National Assembly election and 77% in the 2020 Presidential election. Political party lists for parliamentary elections are expected to include at least one-third of women candidates. Currently, 19% of the members of the National Assembly are women, i.e., 17. It is projected that 1,415,792 (2022 est.) of the population have a disability. There is no restriction for women and people with disabilities regarding voting. All Togo Nationals who are 18 years of age can vote.

There has been a rollback of democratic gains in West Africa in the last few years, with military coups and attempts at illegal extension of tenures by sitting presidents and even bold moves to postpone elections,  as seen in Senegal indefinitely. However, citizens’ reactions, through protests to attempts to amend laws without broad consultation, show that democracy is still acceptable, and people are ready to protect their rights to choose their leaders. We saw citizens and civil society organisations ensure elections were held in Senegal, and protests by Togolese, opposition politicians, and civil society ensured that last-minute constitutional amendments were shelved. For countries that resist attempts to interfere in their democratic journeys either by their governments or external forces, civil society organizations must be equipped to continue to hold institutions and governments accountable to protect electoral institutions and elections in general.