LOME (AFP) – Togo’s long-delayed legislative polls will be held on July 21, the government announced Friday, as the deadline for registering candidates was pushed back following signs that the opposition is planning a boycott.
The small west African nation has been ruled by the same family for more than four decades and has in recent months seen waves of protests by an opposition and civil society coalition demanding sweeping political reforms.
Officials had previously indicated that the vote would be held in July, but a specific date had not been fixed.
“The date of the legislative elections is set for Sunday, July 21, 2013,” Labour Minister Yacoubou Hamadou said in a statement read on national television.
The polls had initially be scheduled for October 2012.
On Wednesday, key opposition leaders said they would not register their candidates for the election as conditions for a free and fair vote were not in place.
Registration of candidates had been set to close on Monday, but the deadline has been pushed back to June 16, in a bid to “ease tensions” Public Administration Minister Gilbert Bawara said in the broadcast
Earlier Friday, security agents fired teargas to stamp out a demonstration called by opposition groups to protest alleged irregularities in the election process.
Togo was led with an iron fist by Gnassingbe Eyadema from 1967 until his death in 2005, when the military installed his son, Faure Gnassingbe, as president.
Gnassingbe won elections in 2005 and 2010, but both polls were marred by allegations of fraud.