AfricaTopSuccess They make Africa
Togo’s Head of State, Faure Gnassingbé, appointed 20 senators to the country’s new Senate on Wednesday evening.
This appointment completes the election of 41 senators on February 15, 2025, which was boycotted by part of the Togolese opposition.
Togo’s Senate is expected to have 61 members, a third of whom (20) are appointed by the President of the Republic.
Among the nominees are a number of opposition figures who are close to the ruling UNIR party. They come from parties such as the Union de Forces du Changement (UFC) led by Gilchrist Olympio, son of the father of independence, the Mouvement des Républicains Centristes (MRC), and the Parti Démocratique pour le Progrès (PDP); parties that actively supported the draft of the current Constitution, which tipped Togo into the 5th Republic with a change of political regime from presidential to parliamentary.
Faure Gnassingbé has also appointed to the Senate leaders of the Pan-African Patriotic Convention (CPP) and the Mouvement Citoyen pour la Démocratie (MCD), parties that claim to be part of the centrist opposition.
Last but not least, the former Prime Minister of Togo’s transition from the Sovereign National Conference of the 90s, Me Joseph Kokou Koffigoh, is back in politics and in high-level positions.
It should be noted that it is Parliament that will elect the next President of Togo (an honorary post from now on) and the President of the Council of Ministers, who will have all the power of the State.
The President of the Council of Ministers will be the leader of the majority party in the Assembly, according to the new Togolese Constitution.
All the new institutions of the 5th Republic must be ready to function before May 6, in order to respect the transitional period allowed by the new Constitution before its full application.
