President Faure Gnassingbé promulgated on Monday May 7 the new Constitution voted on April 19 in the National Assembly. Despite the controversy, Togo enters the Fifth Republic.
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With our correspondent in Lomé, Peter Sassou Dogbé
It was the presidency which announced the promulgation through a press release. “ The President of the Republic, His Excellency Mr. Faure Essozimna Gnassingbé, today promulgated law number 2024-005 revising the Togolese Constitution », We can read in the press release.
This new text, an initiative of around twenty deputies initially, was studied and quickly adopted at the end of March, after having been the subject of numerous and strong criticism. At the request of the President of the Republic, it was returned to the National Assembly a few days later to finally be adopted at second reading on April 19, after explanations to citizens.
The new Constitution moves the country from the Fourth to the Fifth Republic, eliminates the presidential election by direct universal suffrage and shifts the Togo from the presidential regime to the parliamentary regime.
Read alsoTogo: the new Constitution will move the country to a parliamentary regime
The new constitutional law has now been promulgated, it is a new stage in the institutional life of the country, specifies the press release from the presidency, which adds that the content of the text will be published in Official newspaper.
For its part, civil society, the Conference of Bishops and the opposition continue to denounce this constitutional modification which took place to everyone’s surprise. Twenty-eight civil society actors from different African countries (Benin, Cameroon, Mali, Senegal, etc.) signed an open letter addressed to the Togolese president. These lawyers, academics and journalists call on Faure Gnassingbé to say no to changing the Constitution in Togo. They also ask the Head of State to be the guarantor of a democratic change in 2025, at the end of his fourth term. “ Mr. President, you can make history and above all know that there is still life after the presidency », they write. The lawyer and former Malian Minister of Justice Mamadou Ismaila Konaté, signatory of this letter, believes that “ democracy cannot take place against the people “.
Mamadou Ismaila Konaté, signatory of an open letter to Faure Gnassingbé