Parliamentary Election, 29 April 2024

Togo held elections for its National Assembly on 29 April 2024. Originally scheduled for the 20 April 2024, the election was postponed for nine days in connection with a far-reaching and contested constitutional reform whereby the government is headed by a new President of the Council of Ministers (PoCM)—selected by parliament, without debate—instead of a directly elected President. The change extends the term of incumbent President Faure Gnassingbé, who has been in power since 2005 and whose presidential term was due to expire in 2025. The postponement was made without initially announcing a fresh date for polling (Aradi 2024; International IDEA 2024).

The election management body is the Commission Electorale Nationale Independante (CENI) (ACE n.d.). Togo has a list proportional representation electoral system and voting is voluntary (IPU n.d.a).

On 25 March 2024, the National Assembly—dominated by the President’s own party, UNIR—overwhelmingly approved the new Constitution’s first reading (leaving in place a largely ceremonial presidency, and term limited to six years). The new Constitution also restructures the judicial system and establishes a high authority for transparency and anti-corruption. On 31 January 2024, the National Assembly had passed a law increasing the number of seats from 91 to 113 (IFES 2024; International IDEA 2024). The text of the constitutional changes was not made public before being voted on (Siegle and Wahila 2025).

On 14 April 2024, following the arrest of a French journalist (CPJ 2024) local authorities suspended the accreditation of foreign media covering the elections. Domestic media reported increasing threats. Other independent monitors including the Catholic Church were refused monitor status by CENI (Lawal 2024). Additionally, the government banned protests against the proposed new constitution and arrested opposition figures ahead of election day (Lawal 2024; Kaglan 2024).

Gender stereotyping and disinformation is a feature of negative political campaigning against women in Togo.  593 female candidates nevertheless ran in the 2024 National Assembly elections 15 per cent of elected MPs (AWJP 2025). This continues a slight decline in women’s parliamentary representation since a high of 19.8 per cent in 2022 (IPU n.d.b).

Turnout for the election was reported by CENI as being 61 per cent, as compared with 59.25 per cent in 2018 (IFES 2024). The ruling UNIR won 108 seats (or 96 per cent of the expanded chamber), as against five seats for the opposition – the Alliance of Democrats for Integral Development (ADDI), the National Alliance for Change, Dynamic for the majority of the People, and Democratic Forces for the Republic (IPU 2024; International IDEA 2024).