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Togolese parliamentary election, 2007


Parliamentary elections were held in Togo on October 14, 2007 for the 81 seats in the National Assembly. There were over 2,000 candidates, with 32 parties and 41 lists of independent candidates competing. The ruling Rally of the Togolese People (RPT) was victorious, winning a majority of 50 seats. The remaining seats were won by opposition parties; the Union of the Forces of Change (UFC) won 27 seats and the Action Committee for Renewal (CAR) won four seats. They were the first parliamentary elections since the beginning of multiparty politics in the early 1990s in which all major parties participated.

The 2007 elections were the first parliamentary elections to be held following the February 2005 death of long-time President Gnassingbé Eyadéma, who was succeeded by his son, Faure Gnassingbé, elected in April 2005. They followed an agreement between parties in August 2006 and the appointment of a government incorporating the opposition and headed by an opposition leader, Yawovi Agboyibo, in September 2006.

The elections were originally scheduled for June 24, 2007, but in May they were delayed until 5 August. On July 5, it was delayed again by the Independent National Electoral Commission (CENI), although no new date was announced at that time. This delay was caused by a delay in the holding of an electoral census, which was planned to be held from June 8 to July 9 but was rescheduled to run from July 16 to August 17. The census was scheduled to be conducted in one part of the country, called Zone A, from July 16 to July 29, and in another part, called Zone B, from August 4 to August 17; in the remaining part of the country, comprising Lomé and Golfe Prefecture, the census was scheduled to be conducted throughout the period. The end date for the census in Zone A was subsequently extended to August 1, and the census in Zone B was delayed until August 6, with the end date being extended until August 19.

Veteran opposition leader Gilchrist Olympio of the Union of the Forces of Change (UFC) arrived in Togo on August 18 and registered to vote. He said that CENI's work was "not too bad given the means at its disposal" and that the census was "encouraging"; he also urged people to register. The 2007 elections were the first parliamentary elections in which the UFC had participated since the beginning of multiparty politics in the early 1990s.


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