New code reduces mandate of independent electoral commission

A new electoral code that transfers responsability for preparing and organising elections from Togo's Independent National Elections Commission (CENI - Commission électorale nationale independante) to the Ministry of the Interior was adopted by the Togolese parliament on Thursday. The code reduces the membership of the CENI from 10 to nine, with the ruling coalition and opposition represented by four members each, instead of five as previously obtained. The ninth commissioner will be the president of the Lome Court of Appeal, who will cast the deciding vote in the event of a deadlock in the commission. Under the new dispensation, the CENI's members will be appointed by the National Assembly and will be sworn in by the Constitutional Court. The new code states that the Interior Ministry will establish polling stations in the various constituencies and appoint four officers to each of them. In the preceding code, half the polling officers were designated by the government and half by the opposition. Candidates wishing to contest presidential elections in June 2003 will now need to include in their applications a certificate of residence and, where applicable, proof that they have renounced any foreign nationality. The residence provision could affect exiled opposition politician Gilchrist Olympio, head of the Union des Forces du Changement (UFC - Union of Forces for Change). Olympio is also president of the Coalition des forces democratiques (CFD - Coalition of Democratic Forces) which comprises Togo's main opposition parties. The code has also been brought in line with constitutional amendments passed on 30 December and severely criticised by the opposition, partly because they allow the president to run for election as often as he wishes. Under the new code, the president is to be elected under the first-past-the-post system in one round, and not in two rounds as obtained previously. The official proclamation of election results will be done by the Constitutional Court. Under the old code, that was the job of the CENI. Togo's parliament has 81 members, eight of whom are from minor opposition which did not boycott legislative elections last year. The opposition legislators abstained from voting on Thursday to press their demand for a definition of their status as parliamentary opposition although they reportedly were not against the new code. On the other hand, the UFC - which boycotted the legislatives along with other main opposition parties - has opposed the code. It has reacted sharply to the modifications. "The current acts of the regime are pure provocation and will not go far. The Togolese authorities are forcing us towards a clash," the UFC said in a communique. "It will soon take place. Our position is clear: the next presidential election will be free, transparent, fair, democratic and above all, without exclusion, or it will not take place at all". The formation of the CENI resulted from an agreement between the opposition and the ruling bloc that paved the way for negotiations facilitated by France, Germany, La Francophonie and the European Union (EU) with a view to ending the polarisation caused by controversial presidential elections in 1998. However, the process reached an impasse in mid-2002 and the government decided to have the legislative elections 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.