Legislative and regional elections will be held in Togo by April 2024, the government announced on Monday (November 27th).
"The President of the Republic has instructed the government to take all measures without delay to allow the next elections to be held by the end of the first quarter of 2024 at the latest," Yawa Kouigan, Minister of Communication and government spokesman, told state television on Monday evening.
Togolese President Faure Gnassingbé had promised in his 2022 New Year's Eve address that elections would be held in December 2023.
Preparation of the electoral register rejected by the opposition
The last legislative and regional elections took place in 2018 and were boycotted by the opposition, which denounced "irregularities" in the electoral census.
This time, the opposition is preparing to challenge the ruling party, the Union for the Republic, and has mobilised its supporters for the electoral census, which took place from 29 April to 14 June, hence the large turnout at the voter card centres.
The elaboration of the electoral register is hotly contested by the opposition. It was validated in mid-November by the International Organisation of La Francophonie (OIF), which had judged the final electoral register in which more than 4.2 million voters are registered "sufficiently reliable (...) to allow the next regional and legislative elections to be held in conditions of confidence".
Read alsoTogo: President Gnassingbé re-elected for a fourth term contested by the opposition
The head of state has been in power since 2005 after succeeding his father, General Eyadéma Gnassingbé who ruled the country with an iron fist for 38 years.
With AFP
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