Togo: Analyst weighs in on what to expect in upcoming legislative elections

Parliamentary election campaigns kicked off on Saturday in Togo, amid heightened tensions after election delays and the president’s attempt to sign off on a new constitution which would scrap presidential elections entirely.

Parliamentary elections are scheduled for April 29.

The National Alliance for Change (ANC) party has planned protests for weeks, cancelling some after the government banned protests claiming they would “disturb public order.”

Running on a platform of change, ANC hopes with the parliamentary elections to be able to gain a majority in the country’s National Assembly. The Union for the Republic party, created by President Faure Gnassingbé in 2012, also began campaigning. 

From his office in Lome, Paul Amegakpo, political analyst at Tamberma Institute for Governance, said that these elections could allow the opposition to win a number of seats in the national assembly.

Eventually “those in power now could not have the guarantee to have the four out of five, so the quota required, in order to change the constitution,”, he said.

If the ruling party is unable to change the constitution at the level of the National Assembly, the president will be unable to delay or cancel elections through constitutional means.

Africanews correspondent Noël Tadegnon reports that more than 2,000 candidates from political parties and independents are vying for 113 seats as MPs and 179 seats as regional councillors.

They have two weeks to convince 4 million voters ahead the voted scheduled for Monday April 29.