Togolese parliamentary election, 2007
Encyclopedia
A parliamentary election was held in 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...

 on October 14, 2007 for the 81 seats in the National Assembly
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...

. There were over 2,000 candidates, with 32 parties and 41 lists of independent candidates competing. The ruling 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) was victorious, winning a majority of 50 seats. The remaining seats were won by opposition parties: the Union of the Forces of Change (UFC) gained 27 seats and the Action Committee for Renewal
Action Committee for Renewal
The Action Committee for Renewal is an opposition political party in Togo. Dodji Apévon has led the party since 2008; previously it was led by Yawovi Agboyibo from 1991 to 2008....

 (CAR) gained four seats. Seats were allotted based on party list proportional representation with a system of highest averages. This was the first parliamentary election since the beginning of multiparty politics in the early 1990s in which all major parties participated.

Planning, organization, and candidacies

The 2007 election was the first parliamentary election to be held following the February 2005 death of long-time 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...

, who was succeeded by his son, Faure Gnassingbé
Faure Gnassingbé
Faure Essozimna Gnassingbé has been the President of Togo since May 4, 2005. A son of President Gnassingbé Eyadéma, he was appointed to the government by his father, serving as Minister of Equipment, Mines, Posts, and Telecommunications from 2003 to 2005...

. The election followed an agreement between parties in August 2006 and the appointment of a government incorporating the opposition and headed by an opposition leader, Yawovi Agboyibo
Yawovi Agboyibo
Yawovi Madji Agboyibo is a Togolese politician. He served as Prime Minister of Togo from September 2006 to December 2007 and was National President of the Action Committee for Renewal , an opposition political party, from 1991 to 2008...

, in September 2006.

The election was scheduled for June 24, 2007, but in May it was delayed to 5 August. On July 5, it was delayed again by the Independent National Electoral Commission (CENI), although no new date was announced at that time. This delay was caused by a delay in the holding of an electoral census, which was planned to be held from June 8 to July 9 but was rescheduled to run from July 16 to August 17. The census was scheduled to be conducted in one part of the country, called Zone A, from July 16 to July 29, and in another part, called Zone B, from August 4 to August 17; in the remaining part of the country, comprising 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...

 and Golfe Prefecture, the census was scheduled to be conducted throughout the period. The end date for the census in Zone A was subsequently extended to August 1, and the census in Zone B was delayed until August 6, with the end date being extended until August 19.

Veteran opposition leader 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...

 of the Union of the Forces of Change (UFC) arrived in Togo on August 18 and registered to vote. He said that CENI's work was "not too bad given the means at its disposal" and that the census was "encouraging"; he also urged people to register. The 2007 election was the first parliamentary election in which the UFC had participated since the beginning of multiparty politics in the early 1990s.

On August 23, Revival and Redemption Party (PRR) leader Nicolas Lawson
Nicolas Lawson
Nicholas Jean Messan Lawson is a Togolese politician and businessman.Lawson was born in Aného, Lacs Prefecture. He studied hotel management in Ireland and economics in France...

 called on the people to vote, describing the election as a "decisive step forward" and saying that the country "must return to democratic principles, to survive and to develop". He was critical of independent candidates, who he said did not have political programs and would only increase confusion in a country that already had about 80 parties.

Following the census, CENI spent one month, beginning on August 30, eliminating fraud from the electoral list by searching for voters who registered more than once through a computer system comparing fingerprint
Fingerprint
A fingerprint in its narrow sense is an impression left by the friction ridges of a human finger. In a wider use of the term, fingerprints are the traces of an impression from the friction ridges of any part of a human hand. A print from the foot can also leave an impression of friction ridges...

s. Voters who registered more than once were given until August 30 to come forward about this so that the electoral list could be corrected; they were warned that they would face prosecution if they did not do so.

Following an agreement on conditions signed by the European Union
European Union
The European Union is an economic and political union of 27 independent member states which are located primarily in Europe. The EU traces its origins from the European Coal and Steel Community and the European Economic Community , formed by six countries in 1958...

 and the Togolese government on August 3, election observers from the European Union
European Union
The European Union is an economic and political union of 27 independent member states which are located primarily in Europe. The EU traces its origins from the European Coal and Steel Community and the European Economic Community , formed by six countries in 1958...

 were scheduled to arrive on 16 August and continue to observe all election events from that point on. CENI said that over 800,000 voters had registered by August 2, halfway through the census.

On August 30, it was announced that National Assembly was dissolved, that the election would be held on October 14, and that campaigning would run from September 29 to October 12. On the same day, the 162 candidates of the UFC (including their substitutes) were invested by Olympio at a UFC extraordinary congress in Nyékonakpoe
Nyékonakpoé
Nyékonakpoé is a neighborhood of Lomé, Togo....

, a district of Lomé. The ruling Rally of the Togolese People (RPT) invested its 162 candidates (including substitutes) on September 7 at the Palace of Congresses in Lomé. These candidates included Minister of Defense Kpatcha Gnassingbé
Kpatcha Gnassingbé
Kpatcha Gnassingbé is a Togolese politician. He is a son of Gnassingbé Eyadéma, who was President of Togo from 1967 to 2005, and a brother of Faure Gnassingbé, who has been President since 2005. From 2005 to 2007, Kpatcha Gnassingbé was Minister of Defense, and since 2008 he has been a Deputy in...

, Minister of Social Affairs and the Protection of Women Memounatou Ibrahima, Minister of Labor, Employment and the Civil Service Katari Foli-Bazi, National Assembly President Abass Bonfoh, and National Assembly Vice-President Eric Kpadé
Eric Kpadé
Koffi Gbékandé Eric Kpadé is a Togolese politician of the ruling Rally of the Togolese People who served in the National Assembly of Togo from 1999 to 2007....

.

The Socialist Pact for Renewal
Socialist Pact for Renewal
The Socialist Pact for Renewal is a political party in Togo.The PSR did not take part in the parliamentary election held on 27 October 2002; as part of the Coalition of Democratic Forces, it called for a boycott...

 (PSR) invested its 130 candidates on September 8 in Atakpamé
Atakpamé
Founded by the Yoruba people, Atakpamé, the fifth largest city in Togo by population , is a city in the Plateaux Region of Togo. It is an industrial centre and lies on the main north-south highway, 161 km north of the capital Lomé...

. Prime Minister Yawovi Agboyibo's party, the Committee of Action for Renewal (CAR), invested its 162 candidates on September 12 in Lomé; its candidates included Agboyibo, the party's president, Gahoun Georges Hégbor
Gahoun Georges Hégbor
Gahoun Kossi Georges Hégbor is a Togolese politician of the Action Committee for Renewal political party.Hégbor was born in Baguida. He worked as a journalist for Togo-Presse from 1963 to 1972 and was a diplomat at the Togolese embassy in Paris from 1972 to 1976...

, CAR's vice-president and also Minister of Communication, and Ouro-Bossi Tchacondoh, who was Deputy Minister in charge of Local Communities. On the same day, the Democratic Alliance for the Fatherland
Democratic Alliance for the Fatherland
The Democratic Alliance for the Fatherland is a political party in Togo. It was formed as an opposition party in September 2005 by former Prime Minister Agbéyomé Kodjo and former National Assembly President Dahuku Péré...

 (the Alliance), led by Dahuku Péré
Dahuku Péré
Maurice Dahuku Péré is a Togolese politician who was President of the National Assembly of Togo from 1994 to 1999. He is the National President of the Democratic Alliance for the Fatherland , an opposition party....

, invested its 104 candidates in Notsé
Notsé
Notsé is a town in the Plateaux Region of Togo. It is the capital of Haho Prefecture and is situated 95 km north of the capital Lomé. The town was formed around 1600 by the Ewe people, after they were displaced westward by the expansion of the Yoruba....

. Its candidates stood in 19 prefectures, as well as Lomé. The Democratic Convention of the African People (CDPA), led by Minister of State for Mines and Energy Léopold Gnininvi
Léopold Gnininvi
Léopold Messan Kokou Gnininvi is a Togolese politician and the Secretary-General of the Democratic Convention of African Peoples...

, presented its 162 candidates on September 13 in Lomé; the candidates included Gnininvi, Minister of Higher Education and Research Messan Adimado Aduayom, and Deputy Minister of the Informal Sector Lydia Adanlété. Gnininvi praised CENI's "remarkable work" and said that the electoral census had ensured "a credible process".

EU observers began to deploy in Togo on September 18, beginning with 18 observers. These 18 "long-term" observers were subsequently joined by 62 "short-term" observers who arrived on October 6, including the head of the observer mission, Fiona Hall. On October 11, six Members of the European Parliament—Valdis Dombrovskis
Valdis Dombrovskis
Valdis Dombrovskis is the Prime Minister of Latvia. He previously served as Latvia's Minister of Finance and as a Member of the European Parliament for the New Era Party.-Education and science career:...

, Patrick Gaubert
Patrick Gaubert
Patrick Gaubert is a French politician and was a Member of the European Parliament for the Île-de-France through 2009. He is a member of the Union for a Popular Movement, which is part of the European People's Party, and was vice-chair of the European Parliament's Committee on Civil Liberties,...

, Horst Posdorf
Horst Posdorf
Horst Posdorf is a German politician and a Member of the European Parliament. He is a member of the Christian Democratic Union of Germany, which is affiliated with the Group of the European People's Party and European Democrats in the European Parliament.He is a member of the Committee on...

, Marie-Arlette Carlotti
Marie-Arlette Carlotti
Marie-Arlette Carlotti is a French politician and Member of the European Parliament for the south-east of France...

, Neena Gill
Neena Gill
Neena Gill was a Member of the European Parliament for the West Midlands for the Labour Party from 1999 to 2009. Prior to becoming a Member of the European Parliament, she was Chief Executive of ASRA and the Newlon Housing Group...

, and Johan Van Hecke
Johan Van Hecke
Johan Jozef Marie Clara Van Hecke is a Belgian politician and Member of the European Parliament for Flanders with the Vlaamse Liberalen en Democraten, part of the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe and sits on the European Parliament's Committee on International Trade.He is also a...

—also arrived to play a part in the observation mission. European Union aid to Togo had been suspended since 1993, and the resumption of EU aid was said to depend on whether the 2007 election was deemed "free and transparent". There were expected to be about 3,500 observers in total, both from Togo and abroad; aside from the EU, other organizations that intended to have observers in place included La Francophonie
La Francophonie
Francophonie is an international organization of politics and governments with French as the mother or customary language, where a significant proportion of people are francophones , or where there is a notable affiliation with the French language or culture.Formally known as the Organisation...

 and 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...

.

On 20 September, nine new members of the Constitutional Court were sworn in; this followed the appointment of a new head of the Court, Aboudou Assouma, by Gnassingbé on 17 September.

In CENI's review of the electoral census, about 7,000 doubled names were found. The local independent electoral commission (CELI) for Lomé was dissolved by CENI for failing to respect its instructions with regard to multiple registrations on September 23. On September 29, a new Lomé CELI was installed by CENI President Tozim Potopéré.

ECOWAS deployed a team of 140 observers, both military and civilian, on 2 October 2007. In early October, a final total of 2,974,718 registered voters was announced by CENI. CENI also announced that there would be a total of 396 lists in the election, including those for both parties and independents.

The High Authority for Audiovisuals and Communication conducted a draw on September 27 to determine the sequence of campaign airtime for political parties in the media. The Coordination of New Forces
Coordination of New Forces
The Coordination of New Forces is a political party in Togo. Joseph Kokou Koffigoh is the President of the CFN....

, a minor political party led by Joseph Kokou Koffigoh
Joseph Kokou Koffigoh
Joseph Kokou Koffigoh is a Togolese politician who served as Prime Minister of Togo from 27 August 1991 to 25 April 1994. Elected as Prime Minister by the opposition-dominated National Conference in 1991, Koffigoh was given full executive powers and tasked with overseeing a transition to...

, won the right to speak first on TVT.

A point of dispute regarding the conduct of the election was whether ballot papers should be authenticated by being signed by two polling stations officials as a measure to prevent fraud. The UFC was in favor of this, but the RPT and the CAR were not. On October 10, it was agreed to have the ballot papers stamped rather than signed.

Voting

On October 11, the army and security forces voted three days early so that they would be fully available to maintain peace and order on election day. Their votes were not to be counted until the general population voted on October 14.

On election day, electoral observers noted that turnout appeared to be high. President Gnassingbé voted in Lomé, praising the electoral process and expressing his faith in it.

The UFC criticized what it said was the failure of some ballot papers to be properly stamped, which it described as intentional. According to CENI, ballot papers are valid even if they are not stamped. Claiming irregularities in the vote counting, the UFC issued a statement on October 16 urging the people "to be mobilized to save their victory".

Also on October 16, Louis Michel
Louis Michel
Louis H. O. Ch. Michel is a Belgian politician. He served in the government of Belgium as Minister of Foreign Affairs from 1999 to 2004 and was European Commissioner for Development and Humanitarian Aid from 2004 to 2009. Since 2009, he has been a Member of the European Parliament...

, the European Commissioner for Development & Humanitarian Aid
European Commissioner for Development & Humanitarian Aid
The Commissioner for International Cooperation, Humanitarian Aid and Crisis Response is a member of the European Commission. The post is currently held by Kristalina Georgieva....

, praised the election for what he described as its calmness and high voter turnout and the "confidence and maturity of the Togolese people in the exercise of democracy". On the same day, the EU observer mission said the election was marked by "satisfactory conditions" and high turnout, and ECOWAS, which had 152 observers present, deemed the election to be "free, fair and open". The African Union also gave a positive assessment of the election on October 17, although it pointed to some areas for improvement, such as providing sufficient electoral material and the way proxy voting
Proxy voting
Proxy voting has two forms: delegable voting and delegated voting, which are procedures for the delegation to another member of a voting body of that member's power to vote in his absence, and/or for the selection of additional representatives, as in the case with transitive proxies...

 was used.

Announcement of results

Late on October 17, CENI President Potopéré announced provisional results for most seats. These results showed the RPT with a majority of 49 out of 81 seats, the UFC with 21 seats, and the CAR with four seats, while the outcome for seven seats was still to be determined. Turnout was placed at 95%, with 2,820,845 out of 2,974,718 registered voters participating. On October 19, additional results gave the UFC two seats from Golfe Prefecture, leaving only five seats from Lomé to be declared.

On October 20, Olympio said that the UFC, which alleged that almost 40,000 of its supporters' votes were deliberately annulled during the vote counting and demanded a recount, would appeal to the Constitutional Court regarding the results. On October 21, CENI announced that it was not going to publish provisional results for Lomé due to problems and was submitting a report to the Constitutional Court. The problems included more than 300 of the 751 ballot boxes not being properly sealed, an inability to specify the polling stations from which some of the results came, and some polling stations' results being recorded multiple times.

On October 23, CENI, on an injunction from the Constitutional Court, released the provisional results for Lomé. These results showed the UFC winning four of the seats and the RPT winning one, leaving the RPT with a total of 50 seats and the UFC with a total of 27. According to the provisional results for Lomé, there were 378,002 voters and 10,619 invalid votes; the UFC won 256,363 votes and the RPT won 54,102. Across the country, provisional results showed the RPT winning 922,636 votes, the UFC winning 867,507 votes, and the CAR winning 192,218 votes.

Patrick Lawson, the third vice-president of the UFC, said on October 24 that the party might be willing to participate in a new national unity government, but only under certain "clearly defined" conditions.

On October 30, the Constitutional Court confirmed the results of the election: 50 seats for the RPT, 27 for the UFC, and four for the CAR. It revised voter turnout downward to 85%, placing the number of voters at 2,526,049, with 2,344,108 valid votes and 181,941 invalid votes, and it rejected 20 appeals. The UFC disputed the Court's results, with its Secretary-General, Jean-Pierre Fabre
Jean-Pierre Fabre
Jean-Pierre Fabre is a Togolese politician. He has been the Secretary-General of the Union of the Forces of Change , Togo's main opposition party, since 1992, as well as the President of the UFC Parliamentary Group in the National Assembly from 2007 to August 10th 2010. Fabre was the UFC candidate...

, describing them on October 31 as "neither credible nor acceptable" and saying that they did not represent the voters' will, and he demanded that the Court "seriously examine" the appeals. Fabre also accused the Court of "abetting the power grab orchestrated by the RPT through the Independent National Electoral Commission". On the same day, RPT Secretary-General Solitoki Esso expressed the ruling party's willingness to work with anyone of goodwill. On November 1, President Gnassingbé called for the results to be respected by all and said that he hoped that politicians would work together "in a spirit of unity and reconciliation" for the sake of the nation.

Aftermath

Gnassingbé and Olympio met in Ouagadougou
Ouagadougou
Ouagadougou is the capital of Burkina Faso and the administrative, communications, cultural and economic center of the nation. It is also the country's largest city, with a population of 1,475,223 . The city's name is often shortened to Ouaga. The inhabitants are called ouagalais...

 on November 2, along with President Blaise Compaoré
Blaise Compaoré
Blaise Compaoré has been the President of Burkina Faso since 1987 following a coup d'état that ousted then-President Thomas Sankara. In 2011, a mutiny by soldiers over unpaid housing allowances forced him to flee the capital for his hometown...

 of Burkina Faso
Burkina Faso
Burkina Faso – also known by its short-form name Burkina – is a landlocked country in west Africa. It is surrounded by six countries: Mali to the north, Niger to the east, Benin to the southeast, Togo and Ghana to the south, and Côte d'Ivoire to the southwest.Its size is with an estimated...

, who acted as mediator. According to Compaoré, Gnassingbé said that he would invite the opposition to participate in the government. Olympio held out the possibility that the UFC would participate; Compaoré anticipated that the UFC would present conditions for its participation.

The new National Assembly opened on November 13. Its first meeting was chaired by the oldest deputy, Koffi Agbényéga Voule-Frititi
Koffi Agbényéga Voule-Frititi
Koffi Agbényéga Voule-Frititi is a Togolese politician, currently serving as a deputy in the National Assembly of Togo. He is a member of the Rally of the Togolese People .Voule-Frititi was born in Danyi...

 of the RPT (age 73), along with the youngest deputy, Mawulikplim Moïse Sodahlon (age 32) of the UFC. Prime Minister Agboyibo presented his resignation to President Gnassingbé on the same day, saying that the election marked the end of the mission he had been assigned.

Michel met with Gnassingbé in Lomé on November 17. Michel said that he thought "the conditions for the complete normalization of cooperation between the European Union and Togo are met" and that an official decision on the matter would be reached before the end of the year. Olympio met with Gnassingbé at the presidential palace in Lomé on November 21 to discuss the appointment of the next prime minister and government.

In the National Assembly, newly-adopted rules of procedure allowed for a parliamentary group to be established with as few as four members, thereby enabling the creation of a CAR parliamentary group. Shortly afterward, on November 24, the National Assembly elected its bureau, composed of seven members, all from the RPT. Bonfoh Abbass was re-elected as the President of the National Assembly, while Komi Klassou
Komi Klassou
Komi Sélom Klassou is a Togolese politician of the ruling Rally of the Togolese People. He was a Minister in the government from 2000 to 2007 and has been First Vice-President of the National Assembly of Togo since 2007....

 was elected as its First Vice-President and Yao Patrice Kanekatoua was elected as its Second Vice-President. The UFC withdrew its candidates for the positions on the bureau after the RPT nominated a candidate for the position of First Vice-President, accusing the RPT of seeking absolute control of the National Assembly, and the CAR followed suit in withdrawing. The UFC and CAR criticized the RPT, saying that under the newly-adopted rules of procedure a single parliamentary group should not hold two successive positions in the bureau, such as the Presidency and the First Vice-Presidency, and that the allocation of these positions, along with those of the bureaus of committees in the National Assembly, was supposed to reflect the composition of the National Assembly. The two parties said that it had been agreed that the RPT would hold the Presidency of the National Assembly while the UFC would hold the First Vice-Presidency and the CAR would hold the Second Vice-Presidency.

On November 29, it was announced that the EU was resuming full cooperation with Togo. On the same day, it was reported that the delay in nominating a new Prime Minister was due to continued attempts to get the UFC to join the government.

It was announced on December 3 that Komlan Mally
Komlan Mally
Komlan Mally is a Togolese politician who served as Prime Minister of Togo from December 2007 to September 2008. He was Minister of State for Health from September 2008 to June 2011.-Early life and political career:...

 of the ruling RPT, who was Minister of Town and City Planning in Agboyibo's government and had been elected to the National Assembly, had been nominated as Prime Minister. Following Mally's appointment, UFC Secretary-General Jean-Pierre Fabre said on December 4 that his party was "neither disappointed nor surprised" by the appointment of a Prime Minister from the RPT and that the appointment was in line with past actions by the ruling party which excluded the UFC, including the RPT's monopolization of posts in the bureau of the National Assembly. He also said that in his "personal opinion", the UFC had "no interest in participating in this government". Olympio described Mally as "some sort of civil servant, unknown to the public, unknown to the political class", and predicted that Mally's government would be short-lived due to the talks between Gnassingbé and the opposition.

Olympio also said that the election results did not properly represent the voters' will, pointing out that the UFC received nearly as many votes as the RPT, but that due to the way the electoral system was designed the UFC won far fewer seats. Relative to population density, a disproportionately high number of seats were allotted to the north, where the RPT's support was strongest.

The EU observer mission presented its final report on the election to Gnassingbé on December 3. While confirming the mission's positive assessment of the election, the report included a number of recommendations, one of which was that representation in the National Assembly should more closely correspond to population.

After the National Assembly opened, six deputies from the RPT (including Kanekatoua Yao, who had been elected Second Vice-President of the National Assembly) chose to resign their seats, along with three from the CAR, and were replaced by substitutes.

Mally's government, including 21 ministers and primarily composed of members of the RPT, was named on December 13. The UFC and CAR were not included in the government, although Léopold Gnininvi, the leader of the Democratic Convention of the African People, an opposition party that was not elected to the National Assembly, was included as Minister of State for Foreign Affairs.
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