Togo: Arranging Things

Four months after the assassination of President Sylvanus Olympio by a disgruntled army sergeant, the Togolese electorate went dutifully to the polls this week to choose a new government. There was little suspense about the outcome. The voters, handed a single list, could only rubber-stamp the military-backed regime that has succeeded Olympio in the tiny West African republic.

Slated for a continued five-year term as President is Nicolas Grunitzky, 50, the mulatto son of a Prussian doctor and Togolese mother who headed a pro-French puppet regime before Olympio gained independence from Paris in 1960, and who was called upon to take over as Provisional President last January. Ticketed to stay on as Vice President was Antoine Meatchi, 37, a tall, ambitious northern tribesman. To keep the various party factions happy, the election organizers agreed in advance on the makeup of a 56-member National Assembly, divided among virtually all political parties, including Olympio’s Comité d’Union Unité Togolaise and its onetime youth wing, Juvento,* so that none has a majority. Backing up the whole package is Togo’s French-trained army, whose discontent over low pay and manpower led to Olympio’s overthrow. Its ranks have since been doubled to 550 men.

*Perhaps the world’s grandest party label, Juvento takes its name from the first letters of the French words: justice, union, vigilance, égalité, nationalisme, ténacité and optimisme.