LOME, Togo: Togo’s main opposition movement on Thursday called for a wide turnout in parliamentary elections on April 29, in which disputed constitutional reforms has taken a center stage.
Political tensions have been running high in Togo this month, when the country passed reforms that opposition parties say will allow president Faure Gnassingbe, who was appointed by the military in 2005, to extend his grip on power.
Gnassingbe succeeded his father, who ruled the small West African nation for nearly 40 years after leading a coup.
Hundreds of National Alliance for Change (ANC) activists wearing orange T-shirts of the party rallied in Lome district.
“We must have a majority at the end of these elections to stop the disorder in the parliament,” said Francis Pedro Amuzu, an ANC candidate in the polls.
As per the new constitution, the presidency becomes a symbolic role elected by lawmakers for a four-year term.
Political power will rest with a new president of the council of ministers, a kind of post of a prime minister, which the opposition parties fear Gnassingbe will take to bypass presidential term limits.
This position will be automatically held by the leader of the majority party in parliament. Gnassingbe is the leader of the Union of Republicans (UNIR), which has a majority in the parliament.
ANC leader Jean Pierre Fabre fears the constitutional amendment “has only one objective: Keeping Faure Gnassingbe in power for life”.
Representatives of the ruling party, however, claim that the new parliamentary system will strengthen Togo’s democracy.
