Parliament appoints new electoral commission

Togo’s parliament on Friday chose a new independent electoral commission (CENI) made up of opposition and ruling party representatives. The nine-member CENI (Commission electorale nationale independente in French) includes four representatives each of the ruling Rassemblement du Peuple Togolais (RPT – Togolese People’s Rally) and the opposition Coalition of Democratic Forces (CFD - Coalition des Forces Democratiques). Its ninth member is the president of the Lome Court of Appeal, who will be its chairman. Togo’s main opposition Union des Forces du Changement (UFC – Union of Forces for Change) is not represented on the commission. The UFC, led by former presidential candidate Gilchrist Olympio, withdrew from the CFD on Wednesday after the opposition umbrella agreed to sit on the commission. It said it could not continue to participate in the CFD because “its strategies and actions are neither coherent nor fathomable”. The opposition had originally criticised constitutional amendments approved by parliament in late December 2002 that abolished a limit on the number of times a president could seek reelection and paved the way for a watering down of the CENI’s mandate. The electoral code, which parliament approved on 6 February, transferred responsability for organising elections from the CENI to the Ministry of the Interior. It also modified the composition of the commission, previously made up of 10 members evenly divided between the opposition and the RPT, and stipulated that commissioners would be appointed by the National Assembly. The new code also stated that the Interior Ministry would appoint polling officers whereas, under the preceding code, half of these officials were designated by the government and half by the opposition. The official proclamation of election results will now be done by the Constitutional Court. Under the old code, that was the job of the CENI. The new code further stipulates that the president is to be elected in one round, under the first-past-the-post system. Under the previous dispensation, a second round had to be held if no candidate obtained an absolute majority. Among other things, the amended constitution allows President Gnassingbe Eyadema to run for election once again. He has said on various occasions that he wishes to retire this year, but there have been signs that he could seek a third elected term. On 22 February, Prime Minister Kofi Sama, cabinet ministers, RTP officials and traditional chiefs were among thousands of participants in a meeting held at the Lome Stadium to galvanise support for his candidature. “Together, we shall do everything for President Eyadema to be our candidate and for him to be reelected brilliantly,” the speaker of the National Assembly, Fambare Natchaba, said at the meeting. Eyadema seized power 36 years ago in a military coup. He led a one-party regime for years before winning multiparty polls in 1992 and in 1998. The 1998 poll was shrouded in controversy and led the main opposition parties to withdraw from the electoral process. However, a dialogue facilitated by France, Germany, La Francophonie and the European Union (EU) led to the establishment of a paritary committee made up of representatives of the RTP and the opposition, and to the formation of the CENI. However, that process reached an impasse in mid-2002 and the government decided to have the legislative elections - held in October - organised by a college of seven judges from the constitutional court instead of the CENI. The EU subsequently decided to stop funding the facilitation process. On Wednesday the EU - which stopped funding the facilitation of the inter-Togolese dialogue in May 2002 - issued a statement noting December’s constitutional changes and urging the Togolese authorities to ensure that this year's polls are free, fair and transparent. In the meantime, there have been signs of tension in the West African country. During the third week of February, youths purporting to belong to an anti-government group, the Nouvelle Dynamique Populaire, staged a protest in Lome’s eastern neighbourhoods, burning tyres in streets and forcing the closure of schools. Newspapers continue to report that arrest warrants are out for some opposition activists while others have already been detained, including Marc Palanga, head of the UPC chapter in Kozah, Eyadema’s home region in northern Togo. Palanga was arrested by gendarmes on 9 February, taken to the Landja Military Camp in the northern town of Kara, and freed on 17 February. Local media reported that he and co-detainees had been tortured at the camp, which is commanded by the president’s son, Ernest Gnassingbe.