Campaign for Togo's local elections wraps up

Togolese voters will head to polls on Sunday to elect about 1500 municipal councillors.

These councillors will in turn elect the 117 mayors of the various Togolese cities.

The election is a first in 32 years. The 11,000 candidates in the running are wrapping up campaign to canvas for votes.

But beyond these campaign promises, voters want to know what is at stake in this unprecedented poll.

Pascal Agbové is the Executive Director for the Togolese based Youth for Development Initiative.

‘‘First of all, there are political issues of local democracy. As you know, decentralization strengthens democracy, so there will be a strong involvement of the people in the choice of their representatives, and in the control of the action of these elected representatives. They will be able to express themselves freely with regard to the management of their locality.

Secondly, there are economic issues. Do we have the means to manage development projects?’‘, he asked.