Will ECOWAS sanction Togo President or is a civilian coup not a coup?

Togo is purportedly having an election today to elect a new National Assembly. This comes after the elections were postponed by the president, Faure Gnassingbe who has been president of the West African country since 2005 succeeding his father. The father himself had been president for 38 years.

Let us recall the events that led to today’s supposed elections. The term of the current National Assembly expired in December 2023. Prior to today’s vote, that defunct National Assembly was called in at midnight to approve a newly amended constitution. There are two problems with this. First, since it is them had expired, the national assembly had no mandate to sit. Second, even a full national assembly did not have the mandate under the constitution to approve the kind of changes that were proposed in the amendments. And what were these changes?

1. That the president of the Republic will no longer be elected by the togolese people directly but will be chosen by members of parliament.
2. That Togo will no longer run the presidential system but a parliamentary system with the president of the National Council of ministers having the executive power of state.

These sorts of amendments are too heavy for a national assembly let alone an expired one. The constitution of Togo provides that any changes to the term limits must be approved in a referendum and not by the National Assembly.

These amendments effectively give Faure Gnassingbe the leeway to prolong his tenure. His control over the National Assembly makes it certain that he would be chosen again to be president by the National Assembly and the people have no say in who becomes their president. If Faure Gnassingbe is confident of his rule in Togo, why does he want to bypass direct elections by the people? Because he has more than exhausted his terms in office as enshrined in the constitution, having been in power for more almost 20 years. Thus, to prolong his time in office, he proposed these amendments in order to hide behind a change in the governmental system.
Citizens, civil society, religious leaders, and all sections of Togolese society have already kicked against these moves but typical of dictators, Gnassingbe has banned all protests against the amendments, nobody can even organize a meeting or press conference without being harassed, or in most cases arrested and jailed.

Given this background, a constitutional coup is ongoing in Togo orchestrated by the president just like Macky Sall attempted in Senegal and was kicked out by the people. The sham elections happening today only serve to cover up for this constitutional coup. The question is what will ECOWAS do when is on protocol on democracy and good governance has been flagrantly violated and abused? Will ECOWAS issue sanctions or does a civilian coup not qualify as a coup? Africans are watching in solidarity with the Togolese citizens.

#Togo