REPUBLIC OF TOGO

• Official name: Republique Togolaise (Republic of Togo)
• Location: West Africa
• International organisations: African, Caribbean and Pacific Group of States, African Union, Non-Aligned Movement, Organisation Internationale de la Francophonie, United Nation, World Trade Organisation
• Borders: Benin, Burkina Faso, Ghana
• Coastline: Bight of Benin
• Land area: 56,785 Km2
• Population: 6,600,000
• Annual GDP (PPP) per capita: US$900 (2009 CIA estimate). World ranking: 183
• Ethnicity: Almost the entire population is of West African stock. The largest ethnic groups are the Ewe, the Mina and the Kabre.
• Languages: French is the official language and the language of business and communications. Many African languages are spoken, the most widely used being Ewe and Kabre.
• Religion: The half the population follow indigenious religious beliefs. About 30% are Catholic Christians and about 20% are Sunni Moslems.
• Form of government: Presidential republic. Togo is divided into five regions.
• Capital: Lome
• Constitution: The new Constitution of the Republic of Togo came into effect in 2003.
• Head of state: The President, elected by direct universal suffrage for a five-year term.
• Head of government: The Prime Minister, appointed by the President. The Prime Minister is the leader of the largest party in the legislature and is accountable to it.
• Legislature: Togo has a unicameral legislature. The National Assembly (Assemblee Nationale) has 81 members, elected for five-year terms from single-seat constituencies.
• Electoral authority: The National Independent Election Commission (CENI) administers national elections.
• Freedom House 2009 rating: Political Rights 5, Civil Liberties 5

Political history

The coastal area of what is now Togo was brought under German rule in 1884, although control of the interior was not established until after 1900. In August 1914 the territory was seized by Britain and France, and some of its territory was transferred to the British Gold Coast colony (now Ghana). The remainder became a League of Nations mandate under French administration. This became a United Nations mandate in 1946.

In 1958 a UN-supervised plebiscite saw Togolese vote for full independence, and Sylvanus Olympio was elected president. He was assassinated during an army coup in 1963. In 1967 a second coup brought Lt-Col Gnassingbe Eyadema to power, and he was president until his death in 2005. From 1969 he ruled as a dictator under a typical African one-party regime, but international pressure led him to introduce a new multi-party constitution in 1992.

Eyadema and his party, the Rally of the Togolese People (RPT), continue to dominate Togolese politics, and the 2002 legislative elections were boycotted by the opposition Union of the Forces for Change (UFC), led by by Gilchrist Olympio. In 2002 Eyadema amended the Constitution to allow him to seek re-election in 2003. He was duly re-elected, although the opposition again claimed the elections were rigged.

Following Eyadema's death in February 2005, the army stepped in, ignoring the provisions of the Constitution, and installed his son, Faure Gnassingbe, as President for the remainder of his father's term. Reasonably fair legislative elections were held in 2007, at which the UPT won more than a third of the vote. At presidential election in March 2010, Faure won a term in his own right by a wide margin, with the opposition again claiming electoral fraud, although international observers did not support these allegations.

Freedom House's 2009 report on Togo says: "Togo is not an electoral democracy. Despite international consensus that the 2007 legislative elections were relatively free and fair, the 2005 presidential vote was blatantly fraudulent and marked by serious violence... Corruption continues to be a serious impediment to development and stability, and the government took no significant steps to tackle the problem in 2008. Togo was ranked 121 of 180 countries surveyed in Transparency International's 2008 Corruption Perceptions Index... Freedom of speech and freedom of the press are guaranteed by law. In 2004, the president abolished prison sentences for libel and prohibited the seizure or closure of media outlets without judicial approval. Nonetheless, these changes have been infrequently respected in practice and were blatantly disregarded during the 2005 presidential election... Freedoms of assembly and association have not historically been respected in Togo... The judicial system is understaffed, inadequately funded, and heavily influenced by the presidency.

Updated March 2010