Togo:  A Real enthusiasm around the voter registration process

Since last Saturday, the voter registration process has sparked a real enthusiasm in Togo. No date has been announced yet for the holding of the legislative and local elections, but they will take place this year, according to the President of the Republic, His Excellency Faure Gnassingbe, on December 31st.

Sarah Sidibe has been trying to register on the voter lists for the past three days in Togo, ahead of the upcoming legislative and local elections which are expected to be held by the end of the year. However, due to missing documents, malfunctioning machines, and especially the crowds, the 22-year-old woman finds the process to be very slow.

Nevertheless, there is no question of giving up: «This is the first time I want to vote and I am determined to get my voting ID card, » insists the culinary student. «I want things to change in this country. Here, poverty is pervasive. »

Launched on Saturday in a first area of Togo, including the capital Lomé, the voter registration process has sparked a real enthusiasm.

No date has been announced yet for the holding of the legislative and local elections, but Togolese President Faure Gnassingbe affirmed on December 31st that they will take place this year.

The main opposition political parties had boycotted the 2018 legislative elections and the voter registration process, denouncing « irregularities ».

 But this time, the leaders of these parties have been mobilized for several months and are urging their supporters to register on the voter lists in large numbers.

Their call seems to have been heeded, as since Monday, long lines have been forming every day at several voter ID card distribution centers in Lomé.

At the public primary school Bè-Aklassouoù, Evariste Toganou, a 38-year-old supermarket employee, is getting impatient while waiting in line to register for his voter ID card. « I will get my voter ID card no matter the difficulties, because this time I have to vote, » says the man who did not cast his ballot during the 2018 legislative elections, following the opposition’s boycott instructions.

« The real opposition must regain its place in the National Assembly to properly control those who govern us, » he adds.

The Dynamic for the Majority of the People (DMP, a coalition of opposition political parties and civil society organizations) has also called on the officials of the Independent National Electoral Commission (CENI) to « extend the registration period by ten days in zone 1 ».

The president of the CENI, Dago Yabré, toured some registration centers on Wednesday in Lomé but made no promises regarding the extension of the operation. « The mobilization is strong wherever we have been. The CENI will decide independently what needs to be done, » he told the press.

Kodjovi Makafui