By Arnold Neliba
LOMÉ, JUNE 20, 2023 (CISA)-The Episcopal Conference of Togo (CET) has asked the government to release supporters of the opposition parties held in prison most of them without trial, as the country prepares to hold Legislative and Regional Elections slated for December.
“The bishops make a plea to the government for the release of political prisoners,” they said in a statement while urging “everyone to take the necessary steps to ensure a peaceful atmosphere” at the end of the CET’s second ordinary session of the year 2023, on June 16.
About 100 demonstrators mostly allied to opposition parties have been arrested between August 2017 and February 2020 and continue to remain in prison without trial.
“Most have not been tried and their cases are still under investigation in the courts,” the bishops say.
The demonstrators who were arrested on various protests against the 50-year rule of the Gnassingbé family have been demanding the immediate resignation of President Faure Gnassingbé.
Ahead of elections in 2020, a 14-party opposition coalition together with civil society organizations called for protests suspecting that President Gnassingbé, who was on his third term in office, would seek re-election.
According to reports, President Gnassingbé who has been president since 2005 won his fourth term in office in the February 2020 presidential elections. However, observers say elections in Togo are widely disputed and fraudulent.
“The electoral census that has just been carried out launches our country toward the next elections,” said the bishops, thus, calling on the authorities “to keep in their sights respect for freedoms of all kinds.”
In 2022, Togolese President Gnassimbé announced that elections would be held this year but no date has been set. In 2018, the main opposition parties boycotted the legislative polls, citing irregularities in their preparation.
