The work on the Constitutional Amendment Bill proposed by Faure GNASSINGBE and his stomach band: The opposition deputies leave the hall after the rejection of their fine

15 September 2017: Convened this morning to consider the draft law on the constitutional modification of the government by Dama Dramani, the President of the National Assembly, the work in the Commission of constitutional law could not go forward like the Togolese have strongly wished to reduce the tension in the country.



As a result, the amendments (a total of 47 articles) made by all opposition members, including those from the Union of Forces for Change (UFC), were all rejected by the Union for the Republics ) and the Government Commissioner. While the opposition members on this committee declared that they acted in accordance with the texts and no one could prevent a member from making an amendment to a text in Parliament. According to Chassé Awédéwou, a member of the Committee on Constitutional Laws, opposition MPs have no right to make any amendments other than the articles sent by the government. The discussions should be on the government texts, in particular articles 52; 59 and 60 amending the Constitution.



It should also be borne in mind that Article 59, which was amended in the Government's text, does not include the second paragraph which states that: "In no case may a person hold more than two terms". This paragraph is a real problem for Faure Gnassingbe and his clan.

Obviously, we are moving towards the current crisis. The UNIR deputies, who were very embarrassed, were again consulted at the end of the session in order to measure what had to be declared to the press. We read on some faces of the deputies UNIR of the sadness, proof that the latter would not be independent in the decision of their decision. During all the debates, many of them had their mobile phone glued to their ears. At one point, the Speaker of the National Assembly, Dama Dramani, the ministers Payadowa Boukpéssi and Pus Agbétomey had left for more than an hour before returning to his own. Today more than ever, the unity of action of the parliamentary opposition as a whole leads the hard life to power.



It should be noted that the amendments tabled by the opposition parliamentarians include preambles (47 articles), articles 4, 5, 48,51, 52, 53, 54, 55, 56, 57, 58, 59, 60, 62, 64, 79, 81, 91, 95, 97, 98, 1100, 101, 1044, 107, 127, 129, 132, 133, 144, 145, 152, 153, 154, 155, 156, 157, 158 and 159.