In Togo, preparations are being made for the country’s first regional elections, the exact date of which has not yet been announced. A special Independent National Electoral Commission was even set up in April 2022. The government announced on Wednesday December 21 that it was moving to a new stage in the preparations for these elections. This concerns the creation of independent local electoral commissions.
With our correspondent in Lomé, Peter Sassou Dogbe
The Céli, the Independent Local Electoral Commissions, are branches of the Independent National Electoral Commission; they carry out the decisions of the Ceni, supervise the operations of revision of the lists, the electoral operations in the polling stations of their constituencies.
They will be the local relay of the national electoral authority in the prefectures during the organization of the next regional elections.
The Céli were until then 46 in number until the presidential elections of 2020.
After recent discussions during the national consultation of political actors, it was decided that prefectures with more than three municipalities will be entitled to two Céli. Nine prefectures are affected by this case, including Kozah, Tchaoudjo and Ogou among others. With these nine prefectures, the number of Céli will therefore increase from 46 to 55.
This first regional election will make it possible to put in place the regional councilors who, in turn, will be called upon to elect 2/3 of the members of the Senate, the remaining 1/3 is appointed by the President of the Republic.
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