TOGO - ELECTORAL COMMISSION'S ACTIVITIES - 2007

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 LOME 000186

SIPDIS

PARIS FOR GREG D'ELIA
SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: PGOV PREL PINR TO
SUBJECT: TOGO - ELECTORAL COMMISSION'S ACTIVITIES - 2007
LEGISLATIVE ELECTIONS PRIMER

REF: 2006 LOME 1115


1. Summary: Togo's National Independent Electoral Commission (CENI)
has made institutional and logistics progress in a number of key
areas toward legislative elections, officially scheduled for June

24. However, many believe that implementation of the new election
system and voting logistics will take longer than originally
envisioned and will cause the CENI to push the elections to late
August. The CENI needs technical and financial assistance from the
EU and international donors to be able to organize technically
robust elections. Previous cables focused on the politics
surrounding the electoral process thus far; this message describes
the nuts and bolts of the process as it has evolved and the key
challenges remaining. End Summary


2. The CENI has been hard at work since January. Members attended a
four-day seminar up-country during which they listened to advice
from electoral experts from Benin, Burkina Faso, and Mali. The CENI
debated the merits of voter registration cards with or without photo
and delivery on the spot or after centralized production elsewhere.
The CENI, after much heated discussion, adopted an on the spot voter
card with photo. This is a break with the past practice of
registering voters and then issuing a centrally produced non-photo
voter card at a later date. The CENI's decision was confirmed during
a meeting in Burkina Faso with Blaise Compaore, the facilitator of
the Global Political Accord (GPA) signed last August. The CENI
subsequently decided to borrow the electoral kits used in the
UN-supervised presidential election recently held in the Democratic
Republic of Congo (DRC). The kit is a mobile unit comprised of a
generator, computer, scanner, digital camera connected to the
computer, and software used by experts to identify each voter and
deliver a card on the spot. At each voter registration location, a
team of experts will welcome the voter, double check his/her
identity, enter the ID data into the computer, take a digital
picture of the voter, and scan his/her fingerprints. The card is
produced and issued immediately.


3. On February 9, the Council of Ministers at their weekly Cabinet
meeting ratified the CENI's decision to borrow electoral kits from
the DRC. Members of the CENI and the Minister of Territorial
Administration visited DRC from February 17 - 23 to negotiate the
loan of about 2500 electoral kits to the GoT. They came back with
two samples, and the balance of the kits is to be shipped soon.


4. On February 1, the National Assembly amended the Electoral Code,
putting into effect the changes to the electoral system that were
agreed in the Global Political Accord signed on August 20, 2006 by
the major political parties and the GoT. The Assembly confirmed the
new composition of the CENI and its duties to organize and monitor
elections. The amended Electoral Code also establishes for the first
time in Togo a party-list type of system for the legislative
elections, such as is used in South Africa and the European
Parliament inter alia. Previously, Togo had a two-stage election
process, which was prone to violence in the run-up to the second
stage. The CENI will need to learn how to administer a party-list
representation system and then train the CELIs and the voting
officers.



5. On February 19, the CENI released the names of the 279 members
who will comprise the 31 Local Independent Electoral Committees
(CELI). As recommended in the GPA, each prefecture (the electoral
constituencies in the upcoming elections) will be represented by
nine members: two from the ruling RPT party, one from the GOT, one
from each opposition party that took part in the national dialogue
(UFC, CAR, CDPA, CPP and PDR) and a magistrate. The CELIs are
charged with organizing and supervising elections in local
constituencies and reporting results to the CENI. They also propose
and then elect members for the executive boards (vice-president,
reporter, and deputy reporter) of each local voting office and then
supervise their activities. The magistrate is the president ex
officio of the CELI.


6. Many tasks assigned to the CENI remain to be completed. The
difficulty of these tasks makes political party leaders and much of
civil society believe that the election is very likely to be
postponed to a later date. Members of the CENI told the Embassy that
it will take some time to train operators on the new,
high-technology electoral kits before the registration and the
issuance of voters cards itself will start. Testing the kits in the
DRC before forwarding to Togo, re-testing upon arrival, and
installing the software will take about six weeks. The CENI will
then train trainers, who will in turn train the field workers. This
process should take about two months.


7. Comment: The CENI will need technical and financial support from
the EU and from other international donors to be able to organize
credible elections. The June 24 election date was set by the GoT to
satisfy certain EU requirements before any election assistance could
be given and before many of the logistical details for the election

LOME 00000186 002 OF 002


were known. Despite the fact that certain politicians who do not
favor the new electoral system are pressing for respecting the June
24 date for elections, the consensus in Togo seems to be that it is
more important to take the extra time necessary to have
well-organized elections. The stakes for Togo's relations with the
international donor community are understood to be high, and most
people do not want to rush into elections that might fail to be
considered internationally acceptable. End Comment.

DUNN