By: Kebba AF Touray
Members of the ECOWAS Election Observation Mission for the parliamentary and regional elections in Togo have expressed satisfaction over the smooth running of the double election following the opening of polling stations in this West African country on Monday 29th April 2024.
Mrs. Fatoumata Jallow-Tambajang, former vice president of the Gambia and head of mission, expressed satisfaction on the conduct of the elections after visiting several polling stations in Lomé, the Togolese capital.
Nearly 4.2 million Togolese are expected to vote in over 14,000 polling stations to elect their new members of parliament and regional advisors.
The regional Commission deployed forty (40) Observers to monitor the country’s parliamentary and regional elections, and this falls within the framework of the provisions of Article 12 of the ECOWAS Supplementary Protocol on Democracy and Good Governance, and constitutes the support from the regional organisation to Member States during the conduct of elections in their various countries.
The mission is made up of Ambassadors from Member States accredited to ECOWAS; representatives of the ECOWAS Court of Justice and Parliament; Civil Society Organizations, media professionals and election observation specialists from the West Africa region.
Mrs. Fatoumata Jallow-Tambajang was accompanied by the ECOWAS Permanent Representative in Togo, Bacar Banjai Barros; a representative of the ECOWAS Parliament, Honorable Edwin Melvin Snowe Junior; Acting Head of the Electoral Assistance Division of the ECOWAS Commission, Serigne Mamadou Ka; Communication Officer of the ECOWAS Commission, Liberor Doscof Aho, and the Security Officer, Colonel Claude Djehoungo.
At the end of their tour of polling stations, Mrs Fatoumata Jallow-Tambajang praised the timely opening of most of the polling stations at 7.00 am at all the places she visited, despite a slight delay in some of them. She also noted the peaceful and disciplined conduct of electoral procedures, the availability of electoral materials and the presence of polling staff, political party delegates and election officials from the Togolese Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).
Former Vice President Tambajang and team also visited the ECOWAS situation room for the ECOWAS Election Observation mission, set up in a local hotel for this dual parliamentary and regional election.
In this room, a team led by Chinedu Chukuemeka, Senior Programme Officer of the Network of Electoral Management Bodies in West Africa (RESAO), was in constant contact with the ECOWAS Observers deployed in the Greater Lomé Autonomous District and in the country’s five regions, and its mission is to monitor the progress of the double ballot in real-time, i.e. through a technical system set up to keep detailed track of voting operations on the ground.
