Togo cabinet approves bill to limit presidential terms

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The Togolese cabinet has adopted a draft bill to modify the country’s constitution and reintroduce presidential term limits, the government announced on Wednesday.

The announcement follows a recent spate of protests in the capital Lomé, where at least two protesters were killed and a dozen gendarmes wounded.

Protesters marched behind a banner reading "Popular struggle is invincible" and chanted slogans to press for constitutional reform during an anti-government rally in Lomé on September 6, 2017. /AFP Photo

“This bill to modify the constitution concerns specifically the limitations of mandates and voting procedures,” said the government statement, referring to article 59 of the constitution.

Togo has been ruled by the Gnassingbé family for more than 50 years.

Current President Faure Gnassingbé has been in power in the West African country since the death of his father, Gnassingbé Eyadema, in 2005. Eyadema had been at the helm for 38 years.

In 1992, Togo’s parliament introduced presidential term limits after years of Gnassingbé Eyadema’s rule. Ten years later, lawmakers amended the constitution to enable him run for another term.

The President of Togo Faure Gnassingbé arrives for a meeting with the German Chancellor at the Chancellery in Berlin, Germany, on June 9, 2016. /AFP Photo

When he died, the military forcefully installed his son as interim president, instead of the head of the national assembly as was required by law.

Faure Gnassingbé was then elected later in 2005, though that victory triggered a violent security crackdown that killed around 500 people.