2024 Legislative and Regional Elections: HCRRUN Strengthens the Capacities of Local Peace Committees for Peaceful Voting
Members of the Local Peace Committees (LPC) from the Savanes, Kara, and Centrale regions participated from February 19 to 27, 2024, in capacity-building sessions on report writing, conflict prevention and resolution, and support to the High Commission for Reconciliation and National Unity (HCRRUN) for peaceful elections.
Initiated by HCRRUN, these series of regional workshops aim to strengthen the capacities of LPC members to enable them to successfully carry out their assigned mission. The sessions equipped the LPCs with administrative writing techniques, particularly report and minutes writing, and enabled them to understand and apply techniques for conflict prevention and peaceful resolution. Through these workshops, the LPCs also learned how to raise awareness among the populations of their localities for peaceful elections in the country.
The First Rapporteur of HCRRUN, Evalo Wiyao, indicated that their institution, as part of its mission, decided to collaborate with the LPCs, which are associative structures established since 2016 as part of the establishment of a sub-regional peace infrastructure. And for better collaboration, he said, it was necessary to provide these committees working in the field of peace with certain tools so that they could better support HCRRUN. Mr. Wiyao noted that in addition to themes on peacekeeping, electoral issues were also addressed during these sessions. “Since we are approaching the elections, we deemed it important to engage with these committees on issues that will enable the Togolese population to participate in these elections in a climate of peace,” he added.
The First Rapporteur affirms that apart from the period from 2007 to the present, all elections organized in Togo were marred by violence, hence the need to consolidate the gains achieved by the country since 2007 by learning from best practices that can enable the organization of peaceful elections. Mr. Wiyao concluded by recalling the role of the LPCs, which is essentially to raise awareness among political party activists about the freedom that must be granted to all political parties to conduct their activities freely and normally during electoral periods.
After Dapaong, Kara, and Sokodé, these regional capacity-building workshops for LPCs will continue in the other regions of the country.
