Civil society organizations and opposition parties mobilized in Lomé to reject the new Constitution promulgated on May 6th, 2024. This new Constitution conceives of the role of the President of the Republic as honorary, while the President of the Council of Ministers is empowered with executive authority.
The new Constitution still provokes outright rejection from civil society organizations and the opposition in Togo. This Constitution, promulgated by the President of the Republic on May 6, 2024, just does not stop putting people into trouble and disorder.
It is at the appeal of these organizations, joined by several opposition groups, that the large public, eager for information and numerous, mobilized this Saturday morning in downtown Lomé for an awareness-raising event.
One afternoon, a playground became a battleground for the discontent of Togolese citizens, including Bertin, a university student from Lomé. He called for more awareness to be brought to the public on the situation of the country. “We are missionaries, and our mission is now to awaken those still asleep, to encourage the awakened ones, and to fight for justice and freedom,” he declared.
The associations and the people erupted in anger, denouncing the process of changing the Constitution as not being a consultation with the people, since their voices had not been heard.
Associations and, in some cases, traditional leaders, had already been informed about the project by Togolese authorities. For his part, Professor David Dosseh, chief spokesperson of the Front Citoyen Togo-Debout, said the new Constitution still is unacceptable: “The constitutional change, elaborated in Parliament in violation of constitutional provisions, imposes on us something like a parliamentary regime. It only conceals an aspiration of the régime: to perpetuate itself and refuse, never to accept a political alternation. This is the reality we have decided to continue fighting against.”
Dosseh assured that immense mobilization had started within the opposition and he concluded, “We will block this fraudulent act.”