{"id":4513,"date":"2024-04-22T11:03:02","date_gmt":"2024-04-22T11:03:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/?p=4513"},"modified":"2024-04-22T19:22:24","modified_gmt":"2024-04-22T19:22:24","slug":"togo-passes-law-removing-presidents-term-limits","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/?p=4513","title":{"rendered":"Togo passes law removing president\u2019s term limits"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\n \t<\/i> Read Time:<\/span>1 Minute, 44 Second <\/div>\n\n <\/div>

Togo\u2019s parliament has given final approval to a new constitution extending the President\u2019s term, after critics denounced the move as a coup.<\/p>\n

The West African country will move from a presidential to a parliamentary system.<\/p>\n

President Faure Gnassingb\u00e9\u2019s supporters argue the changes reduce his powers by transforming the presidency into a ceremonial role.<\/p>\n

But the opposition said the reforms remove limits on his stay in office.<\/p>\n

Their removal would enable him to remain president until 2031, they said, after which he could be appointed to the new position of \u201cpresident of the council of ministers\u201d \u2013 in effect prime minister \u2013 continuing his family\u2019s 57-year rule.<\/p>\n

President Gnassingb\u00e9 came to power in 2005 after the death of his father, who had been president since 1967.<\/p>\n

The constitutional changes were approved by lawmakers last month. But in the face of mounting public anger, Mr Gnassingb\u00e9 paused the reforms and said they would be subject to further consultations.<\/p>\n

Human Rights Minister Yawa Djigbodi Ts\u00e9gan had said that this move will \u201cimprove democracy in the country\u201d.<\/p>\n

President Faure Gnassingb\u00e9 has been president since 2005, succeeding his father who became president in 1967<\/p>\n

But one-time presidential candidate Brigitte Kafui Johnson, who leads the opposition CDPA party, had described the constitutional amendments as a \u201cpower grab\u201d.<\/p>\n

In recent weeks, pro-government lawmakers have conducted visits around the country they said were intended to \u201clisten to and inform civilians on the constitutional reform\u201d.<\/p>\n

Customary rulers and selected groups were among the main target of the discussions \u2013 but no changes were made as a result.<\/p>\n

There has been widespread fear when it comes to expressing views in public in case they are targeted by the authorities in light of police cracking down on anti-government protests.<\/p>\n

Last month, an opposition press conference under the banner of \u201cDon\u2019t Touch My Constitution\u201d was broken up by police officers armed with truncheons.<\/p>\n

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Togo\u2019s parliament has given final approval to a new constitution extending the President\u2019s term, after critics denounced the move as a coup. The West African country will move from a… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4514,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"yes","rop_publish_now_accounts":{"facebook_2277560469115098_106292521332774":"","twitter_aToxNzczMzI3Njk4OTg4ODUxMjAxOw==_1773327698988851200":""},"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4513","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4513","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4513"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4513\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4528,"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4513\/revisions\/4528"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/4514"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4513"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4513"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4513"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}