Scheduled until Saturday, the Independent National Electoral Commission had to extend the census in Lomé until Monday. Operations will then take place in other areas of the country until June 3rd.
The census centers are always full. It is 12:50 p.m. on this Sunday, at the Adakpamé public primary school where hundreds of people are waiting, overwhelmed by the ambient disorder, reports our correspondent in Lomé, Peter Dogbé. Scrambles in queues are common, says an operations manager. “There are so many people who keep coming. When the sun is burning, everyone takes shelter under the trees. As soon as there is more shade, between 2 p.m. and 3 p.m., people join the queues. But there is jostling. I don’t think it will be over tonight. We are only halfway through the census. »
Fovi Katakou of the Nubuéke association, a member of civil society, denounces the situation as a “fiasco”. Today, he noticed that there were problems with the voting process such as running out of ink and kits.
Infatuation
At the end of the day, Gérard Adja, the former vice-president of the Patriotic Movement for Democracy and Development (MPDD) toured the census centers in Amadahomé, west of the capital. “There are still a lot of people who want to register but can’t do it,” he said.
The leaders of the main opposition political parties have mobilized their supporters for several months and have asked them to “massively” register on the electoral lists, despite boycotting the 2018 legislative elections and the electoral census due to alleged “irregularities”.