New electoral code draws national, international criticism

Changes to Togo's electoral code, approved by parliament on 8 February ahead of legislative elections next month, are aimed at facilitating the holding of polls and the functioning of the country's electoral commission, legislators said in a communique. The changes have drawn a sharp reaction from the country's opposition parties and the international community with the EU announcing on Friday it would suspend support to the electoral process. France regretted the changes and UN Secretary General Kofi Annan expressed concern. The amended code reduces the size of the National Electoral Commission (CENI - French acronym), which is responsible for organising and overseeing all activities related to the 10 March polls. Instead of 20 members, it will now have 10, equally divided - as before - between parties that support the government and opposition groups. The other major bone of contention is that the CENI will no longer take decisions by consensus - which the legislators said, was often hard to reach - but by simple majority. The new code also stipulates that a college of magistrates can be appointed by Togo's constitutional court if the commission reaches an impasse on a given issue, including on proclamation of final election results. Elections will also be limited to a single round, the winner being the candidate with the highest number of votes and in case of a tie, a second round shall be held three months later. Previously, a second round was held if no candidate obtained more than 50 percent of the votes. The reasons for this change include the high cost of elections, according to the communique. Legislative and presidential candidates must be solely of Togolese nationality and those with multiple nationalities will be obliged to relinquish the others. To be eligible for the presidency, candidates must have resided in Togo for a full year before the poll. President Gnassingbe Eyadema's main opponent, Gilchrist Olympio, has lived in exile for years, but the parliamentarians said all presidential candidates should respect the new criteria before the next presidential election in July 2003. Disagreement over a 1998 presidential election which the opposition said was rigged led the country's main opposition parties to boycott parliamentary polls in March 1999. A dialogue between the country's political forces, facilitated by France, Germany, the European Union and la Francophonie (the organisation of French-speaking countries), led to the signing in July 1999 of the Lome Framework Agreement, providing for early elections. The French Foreign Ministry said in a communique on 13 February that the effort to resolve Togo's political crisis was based, inter alia, "on decision-making by consensus, the only solution for moving beyond the lasting mistrust that exists between actors of the inter-Togolese dialogue", adding that the code "jeopardises the inter-Togolese dialogue which we have been supporting for almost three years". The United States and Germany said the changes threatened democracy in Togo, while UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan said on Wednesday that the new development was not "favourable for the holding of the elections".