Gnassingbe acclaimed head of ruling party, but expected to step down as president

Togo's new leader, Faure Gnassingbe was appointed chairman of the country's ruling party on Friday amid rising speculation that he would shortly step down as head of state, handing over power to an interim president during the run-up to elections due later this year. Gnassingbe, the son of Togo's late president Gnassingbe Eyadema, was acclaimed chairman of the ruling Rally of the Togolese People (RPT) by a show of hands at a special congress of the party founded by his father. The 3,000 delegates also endorsed him unanimously as the party's candidate in the forthcoming presidential election. Gnassingbe, who seized power with the backing of the army following the death of his father on 5 February, called for party unity in his acceptance speech. "We must silence the quarrels between the older members of the party known as barons and the youth," he said. "Great parties cannot cope with electoral setbacks. The RPT must not become dislocated," he warned. Diplomats in Lome and sources in the ruling party said there was still a strong possibility that Gnassingbe would bow to international pressure and announce shortly that he was stepping down as head of state during the transition period. It was not immediately clear who would succeed him. According to the Togolese constitution, when the president dies in office, power passes to the President of the National Assembly, who must announce a date for new presidential elections within 60 days. Before Eyadema died, the President of the National Assembly was Fambare Ouattara Natchaba, a veteran adviser of Eyadema and a former foreign minister. However, on the day that Eyadema died, the military prevented Natchaba from returning to Togo from Europe, where he was leading a parliamentary delegation. For the past three weeks he has been sitting quietly in exile in neighbouring Benin. Natchaba broke his silence in a newspaper interview on Friday saying that if he were reinstated as the speaker of parliament he would simply act as a caretaker head of state to oversee the election and would not be a candidate himself. RPT sources told IRIN it was also possible that Abass Bonfoh, the Vice-President of the National Assembly, would be named interim president if Gnassingbe did indeed step down. Meanwhile, a coalition of six opposition parties kept up the pressure for him to go. Opposition leaders met on Friday and called for a dialogue with the RPT to agree on how this small country of five million people should be run during the transition period. "The departure of Faure Gnassingbe is the most urgent priority," said Yawovi Agboyibo, leader of the Action Committee for Renewal (CAR) party, briefing reporters after the meeting. The opposition has called a fresh street demonstration in Lome on Saturday to urge him to quit. The armed forces, which are dominated by the Eyadema family's Kabiye ethnic group from northern Togo, initially suspended the constitution to put Gnassingbe into power. They said they were doing so in order to prevent the small West African country from descending into chaos after four decades of strong-arm rule by his father. A day later the armed forces recalled parliament to retroactively legitimise Gnassingbe's installation as head of state. The legislature sacked Natchaba and elected Gnassingbe as President of the National Assemby in his place. It also amended the constitution to allow the 39-year-old graduate of French and US universities to stay in power as head of state for three years without holding fresh elections. These changes were enacted speedily since the RPT controls all but two of the 81 seats in the single chamber parliament. However, mounting international pressure has gradually forced Gnassingbe and his military supporters to back down. The African Union (AU) and the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) have both condemned the father-to-son succession as a military coup and have demanded that Gnassingbe stand aside as president. On Friday the AU joined ECOWAS in imposing diplomatic sanctions on Togo to demand a full return to constitutional government. Last week, Gnassingbe offered a first concession to international critics by ordering parliament to restore the original wording of the constitution. As a result, the small West African country is now headed for presidential elections within a matter of weeks. But Gnassingbe still clung to power as head of state, drawing blunt calls from the United States, South Africa and Alpha Omar Konare, the President of the Commission of the AU, for him to quit. His widely expected decision to stand down would satisfy those determined that African leaders should start to abide by their own constitutions. It would pave the way for a lifting of international sanctions against Togo and a resumption of aid flows. But diplomats and political analysts said that even if Gnassingbe gave up the presidency, the Eyadema clan, the RPT and the military high command would still remain firmly in control of the levers of power. African leaders have made clear they have no objection to Gnassingbe running as a candidate in the presidential election and winning high office by legitimate means, so the way may be clear for him to put the presidential sash back over his shoulders shortly. However, not everybody is thrilled by the idea of a snap election in just a few weeks time. Many diplomats and opposition leaders have said privately that this is too short a timescale in which to organise free, fair and transparent elections in a country that is just emerging from 38 years of authoritarian rule by Eyadema. Gnassingbe was acclaimed head of the RPT hours after his return from a lightning visit to Gabon and Libya. Both these African states are ruled by authoritarian presidents who have been in power for more than 35 years and who, like Eyadema, have groomed a favoured son to follow them into politics and government.