Togo has rescheduled parliamentary and regional elections for April 29 after delaying the ballot over a highly contested constitutional reform.
The announcement was made Tuesday (Apr. 9) after a cabinet meeting.
Elections were initially scheduled on April 13 before being postponed to April 20.
Togo’s parliament voted in late March to transition the nation from a presidential to a parliamentary system.
Faced with public outcry, the presidency ordered the constitutional reform back to parliament.
In early April, President Faure Gnassingbé met members of the Bureau of the National Assembly and urged them to “to take into account all contributions susceptible to enrich” the Constitution.
The National Assembly’s bureau therefore expressed the need for more consultations over the reform which led to a new postponement.
In a separate notice, the government said a planned three-day protest this week over the arrest of opposition figures and new legislation scrapping presidential elections was illegal, a move that heightened tensions in the West African nation that has been ruled by the same family for almost 60 years.
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