IRIN Focus on EU decision to stop financing political dialogue

Lack of progress in talks between Togo’s opposition and presidential bloc has prompted the withdrawal of funding for facilitation of dialogue between the two sides, and heightened fears of a worsening political climate in the West African nation. The European Union (EU) has decided not to renew funding for the facilitation effort, which expired on 31 May 2002. The facilitators came from the EU, France, Germany and La Francophonie, the community of French-speaking nations. "The European Union stopped providing financial support for the facilitation because, instead of advancing, the electoral process has been marking time and Togo's political actors are no longer putting their trust in the facilitators," Philippe Van Damme, charge d'affaires of the EU delegation in Lome, told IRIN. As a result, there were no new arguments for extending the facilitation, he said. The decision affects the EU, French and German facilitators, who were financed by the European Union. The fourth facilitator is financed by La Francophonie. He is Lansana Kouyate, former secretary-general of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS). "We are following with interest the actions being conducted by Kouyate," Van Damme said. "Even if the facilitation has been stopped we haven’t broken off the dialogue." The EU move came a few weeks after the government decided to have a college of seven judges organise legislative elections. Under the Lome Framework Accord, signed in 1999 by Togo’s ruling coalition, the Presidential Bloc, and opposition parties, the polls were to have been organised and supervised by a National Independent Electoral Commission (CENI). "Since the CENI has been replaced by a college of judges, it is clear that we are no longer within the consensual framework of the Lome Framework Agreement," Van Damme said. Background to the current political impasse The current political crisis dates back to the June 1998 presidential election, won by the incumbent Gnassingbe Eyadema. The opposition said the poll was rigged, and refused to participate in subsequent legislative polls. A breakthrough came on 29 July 1999, when parties signed the framework agreement (Accord Cadre de Lome), agreeing to respect the constitution and to come together to prepare early legislative elections. A joint follow-up committee was set up to create the conditions for a more relaxed political climate and to draw up a new electoral code, promulgated on 5 April 2000. The next step was the creation of the CENI, which took office on 30 June 2000. On 30 January 2001, the commission proposed 14 and 28 October as the dates for the legislative elections, which the international community - the EU in particular - offered to support. However, the government only reacted to the proposals in June 2001. After it became evident that elections could not be prepared on time, the United Nations sent an exploratory mission to Togo in August whose main recommendation was that the polls be postponed by at least four months. It also recommended that the government disburse its contribution towards financing the elections and proposed the deployment of four international experts to support the CENI. The EU and La Francophonie each indicated its preparedness to pay for one of the experts. The elections were then postponed to 10 March 2002 and the revision of voters’ lists was begun in December 2001. However, the Presidential Bloc declined a proposal by France to fund the provision of new voters’ cards and an EU offer of technical assistance with regard to revising the lists. Electoral Commission dissolved Work in the CENI was paralysed and, in early 2002, the government dissolved the commission on the advice of the Constitutional Court. Work in the joint committee was blocked by the detention of Yaovi Agboyibo, leader of one of the parties that signed the Lome Framework Agreement, the Comite d’Action pour le Renouveau (CAR - Action Committee for Renewal). The opposition decided in September 2001 to suspend its participation in the committee because of Agboyibo’s detention in connection with what they saw as political lawsuits filed against him. The CAR leader was released earlier this year, but the political situation remained unchanged. Moreover, newspapers have often been confiscated and journalists arrested. Issues that have still not been resolved include the drawing up of a statute on the opposition, which was adopted in a sub-commission, the financing of political parties, Togo’s image abroad and the role of the media. Issues relating to the status of former heads of state and security were not discussed. Opposition reactions Opposition politicians have expressed regret at the ending of the facilitation. They have also come out against the decision to replace the CENI with the seven judges. Edem Kodjo, president if the Convergence Patriotique Panafricaine (CPP - Patriotic Panafrican Convergence) said in the 3-7 June issue of Le Combat du Peuple weekly that his party would not take part in elections organised by the judges since there was no guarantee they would be credible. Gilchrist Olympio, head of the opposition Union pour le Changement (UFC - Union for Change) said recently on French radio that the opposition would not sit idly by while preparations were being made to hijack the elections. He called on the population to prepare for dead city operations and civil disobedience actions. As Togo’s politicians move farther away from a consensus, people have become increasingly worried. The failure of the facilitation effort and the increased tension take them back to the situation that obtained before the Lome Framework Agreement was signed.