Faced with the dilatory government, the parliamentary opposition calls on the people to take responsibility

In a public statement, the parliamentary opposition traces the film of what was done in committee and plenary during the study and voting of the government's draft law revising the constitution. A true dilatory and a leak forward. The opposition therefore calls on the people to take responsibility. Here is the statement!



Statement by Members of the Parliamentary Opposition On

Friday, 15 September 2017, the Committee on Constitutional Laws, Legislation and General Administration of the National Assembly met to study the substance of the draft law Amendments to Articles 52, 59 and 60 of the Constitution of 14 October, tabled on 8 September 2017 on the National Assembly, by the Government of Mr Sélom KLASSOU, Prime Minister. At this meeting of the Law Commission, Mr Payadowa BOUKPESSI, Minister of Territorial Administration, Decentralization and Local Government, was in attendance at the government commission. Then AGBETOMEY, Minister of Justice and Nicoué Octave BROOHM, higher education and research.



After reading the explanatory memorandum by Minister Nicoué Octave BROOHM, the general debate was opened. And the opposition as a whole noted:

On the one hand, the government's statement of reasons deliberately biased and provocative, making the opposition responsible for refusing, for 12 years, the implementation of the Global Political Agreement (APG) and dealing with anti-republican acts of destabilization, popular and peaceful demonstrations, without any allusion or condemnation of the bloody and indiscriminate repression of which the protestors were the object.

on the other hand, that the amendment proposed by the Government to Articles 52, 59 and 60 does not meet the expectations of the people demanding a return to the constitution of 14 October 1992 in its original version by reintroducing the 47 articles and preamble unilaterally modified since 2002 by the regime in place to the exclusive profits of Mr Gnassingbé Eyadéma the father and Mr Gnassingbé Faure son. The deputies of the parliamentary opposition after having recalled,



- that the withdrawal on 13 September 2017 of the proposed Constitutional Revision Act introduced on June 29, 2016 in the National Assembly by twenty (20) deputies of the parliamentary opposition is justified by the very clear desire expressed by the especially during the last public demonstrations in August and September 2017, to return to the 1992 constitution in its original form,

- that all these steps followed the rejection by the parliamentary majority of a first bill of constitutional revision introduced by the government in June 2014 and rejected, contrary to expectation, by its parliamentary majority, parliamentary majority of a first proposal for a Constitutional Revision Act introduced by opposition members in November 2014, followed by the aforementioned one introduced in June 2016, adjourned by the President of the National Assembly in violation of the Rules of Procedure, Decision No. C-001/17, issued on 22 March 2017 by the Constitutional Court enjoining the President of the Law Commission and the President of the National Assembly to ensure respect for parliamentary procedure,

have therefore requested the Government to withdraw the draft law so as to bring it into line with the 1992 Constitution in its original form, voted by referendum on 22 September 1992, to 99.4% of the votes cast and promulgated on 14 October 1992.

This request was rejected by the Government Commissioner.

At the time of the special study, the Parliamentary Opposition, Mr AMEGANVI Manavi Isabelle, Chairwoman of the ANC Parliamentary Group and member of the Law Commission, introduced, in accordance with Article 90 of the Constitution and A proposed amendment to the Preamble and Articles 4, 5, 48, 51, 52, 53, 54, 55, 56, 57, 58, 59, 60, 62, 64, 79, 81, 91, 95, 96, 97, 98, 100, 101, 104, 107, 127, 129, 132, 133, 144, 152, 153, 154, 155, 156, 157, 158 and 159 of the Basic Law, ie a total of 47 amendments aimed at the return to the constitution of 14 October 1992 in its original version.

The introduction of these amendments created embarrassment and disagreement between the government commissioners, the Minister of Justice believing for his part that the government should read these amendments before making a decision. According to Mr Dama DRAMANI, President of the National Assembly, since the amendments bring the constitution back to 1992, the content is known and the government has to rule on their admissibility. The Minister of Territorial Administration, Decentralization and Local Governments, the Prime Commissioner of the Government, for his part, has chosen to reject outright all the amendments made by the opposition without their prior reading in violation blatant parliamentary procedures, stating that the government preferred to keep its initial draft as it stood.

It was in the face of this obstinate refusal to examine the amendments of the parliamentary opposition, which the deputies ANC, CAR, ADDI, DSA, FDR, Sursaut Togo and UFC left the room leaving the government commissioners and the deputies of the Group Parliamentary UNIR continue the work. Thus, the six UNIR deputies, members of the Committee on Constitutional Law, would have adopted without amendment the draft law amending articles 52, 59 and 60 of the constitution of 14 October 1992 presented by the government.

All the members of the parliamentary opposition take the Togolese people and the international community to witness the efforts they have made since 2014 to date to make it possible to resolve the political crisis that is undermining Togo by returning to the constitution of 14 October 1992 as desired by the entire Togolese nation. Again the government and its parliamentary majority have shown their bad faith by introducing a shaky and provocative text, to take or leave. Now is the sovereign Togolese people! Fact Lomé, 16 September 2017 For Members of Parliamentary Opposition The President of the Parliamentary Group ANC Member of the Law Commission