TOGO / CENI: President Faure Gnassingbé and the government are already addressing the «timeline» for the upcoming elections
As the regional and legislative elections are expected to take place towards the end of the first quarter of 2024, President Faure Gnassingbé and his government, during the council of ministers on Saturday, November 25, gave instructions to the CENI (Independent National Electoral Commission).
According to the statement that followed the council’s proceedings, «The President of the Republic instructed the government to take all necessary measures without delay to organize the upcoming elections no later than the end of the first quarter of 2024, taking into account the persistence of security challenges to ensure the necessary security for all candidates, voters, and citizens throughout the national territory».
The instruction from the Head of State, Faure Gnassingbé, is in response to the presentation by the Minister of Territorial Administration, Decentralization, and Territorial Development, Colonel Hodabalo Awaté, during the council.
In fact, the minister reported on the conclusions of the audit of the electoral register carried out by a team of experts from the International Organization of the Francophonie (OIF).
Colonel Hodabalo Awaté then recalled that the external audit, conducted from October 20 to 27, 2023, concluded that the 2023 electoral register, including 4,203,711 registered voters (of which 2,262,396 are women, representing 53.82%, and 1,941,315 are men, representing 46.18%), is sufficiently reliable to allow the holding of the upcoming regional and legislative elections with confidence.
In addition, the proportion of registered voters in the register represents 51.9% of the Togolese population as counted by the General Population and Housing Census of 2022 (RGPH5).
For the government, the CENI now has the duty to «…propose a timeline for the organization of regional and legislative elections».
Sitou AYITEVI
