VZCZCXRO7120
RR RUEHMA RUEHPA
DE RUEHPC #0186/01 0651505
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
R 061505Z MAR 07
FM AMEMBASSY LOME
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 7823
INFO RUEHZK/ECOWAS COLLECTIVE
RUEHFR/AMEMBASSY PARIS 0532

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