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In Togo, it is in a climate of high tension that citizens are called to vote to elect their deputies in a long-awaited legislative election that has been repeatedly postponed and finally rescheduled for Monday April 29. This new postponement follows President Faure Gnassingbé's request to re-examine the text aimed at amending the Constitution to move the country from a presidential to a so-called parliamentary regime, initially adopted by the assembly on March 25. With an overwhelming majority in parliament, it came as no surprise that the deputies confirmed the adoption of the text.

Henceforth, in Togo, power resides in the hands of a President of the Council of Ministers, appointed by the deputies, in charge of regalian functions. The president's term of office is six years, without specifying whether or not he or she can be reappointed. It is this point that worries the opposition, who fear that the current president, Faure Gnassingbé, could be appointed to this position, ensuring that he remains in power indefinitely. 

The day after the final adoption of the new constitution, the opposition lodged an appeal with the ECOWAS Court of Justice to demand the withdrawal of the country's new constitution, arguing that the constitutional reform "was made in the absence of prior public debate and political consensus", which, according to opponents and civil society, would undermine "democracy and good governance".

For some analysts, muzzled by bans on demonstrations, the opposition has concentrated its efforts on the run-up to the ballot scheduled for Monday 29, to raise awareness of how to vote, in order to avoid invalid ballots. According to the opposition, these legislative elections are an opportunity to "break the chains of slavery" that are shackling the Togolese people, and put an end to the Gnassingbé "dynasty".

According to the opposition, there is a flagrant lack of transparency in this election, with the authorities refusing to accredit an observer mission proposed by the Justice and Peace Commission. Even ECOWAS, which had announced an exploratory mission to interact with the main stakeholders on the latest developments in the country in a tweet, ended up modifying it the very next day, simply reclassifying the mission as "informational". It was thus in a rather confused climate that the Togolese were called to vote on Monday April 29, 2024, with the result ushering in a new political era in a country where the political scene has never been so turbulent in recent years.