Faure Gnassingbé
Encyclopedia
Faure Essozimna Gnassingbé (born June 6, 1966) has been the President of Togo
Togo
Togo, officially the Togolese Republic , is a country in West Africa bordered by Ghana to the west, Benin to the east and Burkina Faso to the north. It extends south to the Gulf of Guinea, on which the capital Lomé is located. Togo covers an area of approximately with a population of approximately...

 since May 4, 2005. A son of President Gnassingbé Eyadéma
Gnassingbé Eyadéma
General Gnassingbé Eyadéma , was the President of Togo from 1967 until his death in 2005. He participated in two successful military coups, in January 1963 and January 1967, and became President on April 14, 1967...

, he was appointed to the government by his father, serving as Minister of Equipment, Mines, Posts, and Telecommunications from 2003 to 2005. When Eyadéma died on February 5, 2005, Gnassingbé was immediately installed as President with support from the army. Doubts regarding the constitutional legitimacy of the succession led to heavy regional pressure being placed on Gnassingbé, and he resigned on February 25. He then won a controversial presidential election on April 24 and was sworn in as President again.

Gnassingbé is also the National President of the Rally of the Togolese People
Rally of the Togolese People
The Rally of the Togolese People is the ruling political party in Togo. The President of Togo, Faure Gnassingbé, is also the National President of the RPT....

 (RPT).

Background

Born in Afagnan in Lacs Prefecture
Lacs, Togo
Lacs is a prefecture located in the Maritime Region of Togo. The prefecture seat is located in Aného. It contains Togo's farthest east point....

, Faure Essozimna Gnassingbé was one of Gnassingbé Eyadéma's many children; his mother was Séna Sabine Mensah. Faure received his secondary education in Lomé
Lomé
Lomé, with an estimated population of 737,751, is the capital and largest city of Togo. Located on the Gulf of Guinea, Lomé is the country's administrative and industrial center and its chief port. The city exports coffee, cocoa, copra, and palm kernels...

 before studying in Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...

 at the Sorbonne
Sorbonne
The Sorbonne is an edifice of the Latin Quarter, in Paris, France, which has been the historical house of the former University of Paris...

, where he received a degree in financial business management; he subsequently obtained a Master of Business Administration
Master of Business Administration
The Master of Business Administration is a :master's degree in business administration, which attracts people from a wide range of academic disciplines. The MBA designation originated in the United States, emerging from the late 19th century as the country industrialized and companies sought out...

 degree from The George Washington University in the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

. He was elected to the National Assembly of Togo
National Assembly of Togo
The unicameral National Assembly of Togo is the country's legislative body. It has a total of 81 members who are elected in a party list proportional representation system...

 in the October 2002 parliamentary election
Togolese parliamentary election, 2002
Parliamentary elections were held in Togo on 27 October 2002. Like the previous elections in 1999, they were boycotted by nine opposition parties , following the replacement of the Independent National Electoral Commission by a seven-magistrate committee and a revision of the Electoral Code...

 as a Deputy
Chamber of Deputies
Chamber of deputies is the name given to a legislative body such as the lower house of a bicameral legislature, or can refer to a unicameral legislature.-Description:...

 for Blitta
Blitta
Blitta is a prefecture and town located in the Centrale Region of Togo.- References :...

, and in the National Assembly he was coordinator of the commission in charge of privatization. On July 29, 2003 he was appointed as Minister of Equipment, Mines, Posts, and Telecommunications, serving in that position until becoming President in February 2005.

Some in the opposition claimed that the amendment of the Constitution in December 2002, lowering the minimum age for the President from 45 years to 35 years, was intended to benefit Faure Gnassingbé. His appointment to the government in July 2003 came after he had already been appearing with his father at official functions and contributed to speculation that he was intended as his father's successor.

Politics

Eyadéma died suddenly on February 5, 2005. According to the Togolese Constitution, after the President's death, the President of the National Assembly should become acting President. At the time of Eyadéma's death, National Assembly President Fambaré Ouattara Natchaba
Fambaré Ouattara Natchaba
Fambaré Ouattara Natchaba is a Togolese politician. He was the President of the National Assembly of Togo from 2000 to 2005. He is a prominent member of the ruling Rally of the Togolese People and is a member of the Pan-African Parliament representing Togo.-Political career:Natchaba was born in...

 was out of the country, and Faure Gnassingbé was sworn in as acting President to "ensure stability". Many believe that Natchaba did not want to come back to Togo due to fears of assassination by the Gnassingbé clan. The army wanted him to resign his position and allow Faure to legally take over. The African Union
African Union
The African Union is a union consisting of 54 African states. The only all-African state not in the AU is Morocco. Established on 9 July 2002, the AU was formed as a successor to the Organisation of African Unity...

 denounced Faure's assumption of power as a military coup.

Legitimacy

A day after his father's death, the National Assembly received clear instructions to dismiss Natchaba and elect Gnassingbé in his place, which would legalize his succession; French law professor Charles Debbasch served as mastermind of the entire operation. Gnassingbé's election was unanimously approved by the deputies (98% of them were members of the ruling party) who were present in the National Assembly at the time; the opposition was not represented in the National Assembly due to its boycott of the 2002 parliamentary election. The members of Gnassingbé's party did not want to challenge the army's choice. The parliament also eliminated a constitutional requirement that elections be held within 60 days of the president's death, enabling the younger Gnassingbé to rule until the expiration of his father's term in 2008.

Under pressure from others in the region, and particularly Nigeria
Nigeria
Nigeria , officially the Federal Republic of Nigeria, is a federal constitutional republic comprising 36 states and its Federal Capital Territory, Abuja. The country is located in West Africa and shares land borders with the Republic of Benin in the west, Chad and Cameroon in the east, and Niger in...

, later in February 2005 Gnassingbé announced that new elections would be held within 60 days, but said that he would remain in office in the meantime. However, on February 21, the Togolese National Assembly reversed some of the constitutional changes that it had made so as to allow Gnassingbé to assume power, although it did not instruct him to resign. This was construed as a way of pressuring him to stand down with dignity. To change the constitution during a period of transition was itself an unconstitutional act, but this did not deter Faure's allies.

On February 25, Gnassingbé was nominated by delegates of the ruling party, the Rally for the Togolese People, as the party's presidential candidate. He was also chosen as head of the party. Many still wonder how Gnassingbe was nominated since the convention was kept secret. Shortly afterwards, he announced that he would step down as President during the interim period. Bonfoh Abass was appointed by the National Assembly to replace him until the election on April 24, 2005. Bonfoh was considered by some to be a puppet of the military elite and the Gnassingbé family. Faure Gnassingbé competed with the main opposition candidate, Emmanuel Bob-Akitani
Emmanuel Bob-Akitani
Emmanuel Bob-Akitani is a Togolese politician who was the main opposition candidate in the 2003 and 2005 Togolese presidential elections. He is the Honorary President of the Union of Forces for Change ....

, a retired engineer of the state-owned mining company and the second most important person in the opposition coalition after Gilchrist Olympio
Gilchrist Olympio
Gilchrist Olympio is a Togolese politician and the President of the Union of Forces for Change , the country's main opposition party. Since the late 1970s, Mr...

. Olympio could not take part in the election, since the constitution requires that any candidate must have lived for at least 12 months in Togo, and Olympio had been in self-imposed exile for fear that he would be murdered by the Eyadema clan like his father.

In the election, Gnassingbé took slightly more than 60% of the votes according to official results. The RPT refused to allow oversight during the counting of the ballots. The EU and the Carter Center deemed the elections to be fraudulent. Mass protests by the coalition of opposition parties led to the killing of over 400 citizens by security forces. 40,000 refugees fled to neighboring Benin and Ghana, most of whom have since been repatriated despite concerns.

External links

  • Violent rioting, deaths follow disputed election in Togo, Wikinews
  • Togo Elections on Tv
  • Charles Debbasch (Wikipédia français)
The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
x
OK