Dahuku Péré

Maurice Dahuku Péré (born 1953) is a Togolese politician who was President of the National Assembly of Togo from 1994 to 1999.[1][2] He is the National President of the Democratic Alliance for the Fatherland (the Alliance), an opposition party.[3]

Péré was born in Bohou in Kozah Prefecture.[1][2] After earning his degree, he was a teacher and then a school headmaster.[1] In the mid-1980s, he studied school administration in Canada; he also studied English there[1] and speaks the language fluently.[4] He subsequently served as Secretary-General of the Ministry of National Education from 1986 to 1990[1][2] and became head of the National Movement of Youth, the youth wing of the ruling Rally of the Togolese People (RPT), in 1987. He served in the government as Minister of Labor and the Civil Service from 1990 to 1991, and he was Deputy Secretary-General of the RPT from 1991 to 1994.[2]

In the February 1994 parliamentary election, Péré was elected to the National Assembly from the third constituency of Kozah.[1] He was then elected as the President of the National Assembly on June 23, 1994, receiving a majority of 42 votes, while 36 deputies abstained from the vote.[5] He served as President of the National Assembly until 1999,[1][2] and he was re-elected to the National Assembly in the March 1999 parliamentary election[1][6] as the RPT candidate in the Second Constituency of Kozah Prefecture; he was the only candidate and received 100% of the vote.[6] In November 2000, he was given the prestigious title of Commander of the Order of Mono.[7]

On March 24, 2002, Péré, who was a member of the Political Bureau of the RPT, sent a letter to President Gnassingbé Eyadéma and the members of the RPT Central Committee in which he called for reforms in the party, saying that it was failing to achieve national reconciliation and economic development and that it was internally intolerant of criticism.[8] Consequently, the RPT Central Committee voted unanimously on August 6, 2002 to expel Péré from the party, along with former Prime Minister Agbéyomé Kodjo, for high treason;[9] he was also expelled from the Order of Mono on August 2.[7][9]

Prior to his call for reform, Péré had been elected by the National Assembly as a member of the regional ECOWAS Parliament.[10] At the ECOWAS Parliament, he was Chairman of the Committee on Law Regulations, Legal and Judicial Affairs, Human Rights and Free Movement of Persons.[11] On August 27, 2002, the National Assembly voted to replace Péré with Solitoki Esso in the ECOWAS Parliament,[10] with 62 votes in favor of his replacement and none opposed; Péré was the only deputy to abstain from the vote.[12] However, the ECOWAS Parliament objected to the National Assembly's move, saying that there was no valid basis for Péré's unilateral replacement.[11][13]

On October 5, 2002, Péré signed a joint statement with opposition parties on behalf of "reformers of the RPT". The RPT objected to this on the grounds that Péré had been expelled from the party and no longer had the right to use the party's name, promptly taking the matter to court and obtaining a ruling on October 10 that banned Péré from using the party's name or claiming to represent any group within the party. Péré's defense argued that he had never received a written notification of his expulsion from the RPT, as required by the RPT's constitution.[14]

Péré announced on April 29, 2003 that he would run in the presidential election on June 1, 2003 as the candidate of the Socialist Pact for Renewal (PSR).[15] In the election, he won 2.20% of the vote according to final official results, placing fourth;[16] on June 2, the day after the election, he accused Eyadéma of ballot stuffing and claimed to have actually won 37.7% of the vote.[17] In September 2005, he founded a new opposition party, the Democratic Alliance for the Fatherland (the Alliance), together with Agbéyomé Kodjo.[18][19] Péré is the party's National President.[3]

Péré was the first candidate on the Alliance's candidate list for Kozah constituency in the October 2007 parliamentary election,[20][21] but the Alliance failed to win any seats in the election.[22]

At the time of the March 2010 presidential election, Péré chose to support the main opposition candidate, Jean-Pierre Fabre of the Union of the Forces of Change (UFC), and the Alliance joined the Republican Front for the Alternance and Change (FRAC), a coalition backing Fabre. Some party members objected to Péré's decision, preferring to support President Faure Gnassingbe.[23]

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 1.6 1.7 "Présidentielles 2003 : Profil des candidats", iciLome.com, May 16, 2003 (French).
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 "Dahuku Pere, L’homme qui se place pour l’avenir" at the Wayback Machine (archived April 19, 2004), Afrique Express, N° 270, May 20, 2003 (French).
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 « Plaidoyer pour une nouvelle ethnie au Togo »", afrik.com, April 26, 2007 (French).
  4. ↑ "TOGO: Profiles of candidates in Togo's 1 June presidential election", IRIN, May 5, 2003.
  5. ↑ "DÉMOCRATISATION À LA TOGOLAISE" ("CHRONOLOGIE"), Tètè Tété, 1998 (diastode.org) (French).
  6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 Journal Officiel de la Republique Togolaise, 20 April 1999, page 35 (French).
  7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 "Une figure du parti au pouvoir exclue de la plus haute distinction togolaise", AFP (diastode.org), August 2, 2002 (French).
  8. ↑ "Dahuku Péré (RPT): A quand donc la fin de la barbarie?" (text of Péré's letter), togo-confidentiel.com, March 24, 2002 (French).
  9. ↑ 9.0 9.1 "L'ancien Premier ministre togolais et un député exclus du parti présidentiel", AFP (diastode.org), August 7, 2002.
  10. ↑ 10.0 10.1 "Le député Dahuku Péré remplacé au Parlement de la CEDEAO", Panapress (diastode.org), August 27, 2002 (French).
  11. ↑ 11.0 11.1 "ECOWAS Parliament Opposes Togo's Move to Replace Member", Panapress, September 5, 2002.
  12. ↑ Augustin Assiobo, "Parlement de la CEDEAO (Abuja)", iciLome.com, September 26, 2002 (French).
  13. ↑ "Le Parlement CEDEAO contre le remplacement d'un député togolais", Panapress (diastode.org), September 4, 2002 (French).
  14. ↑ "Le RPT assigne Dahuku Péré en justice", iciLome.com, October 16, 2002 (French).
  15. ↑ "L'opposant Dahuku Péré, candidat à l'élection présidentielle du 1er juin", AFP (iciLome.com), April 30, 2003 (French).
  16. ↑ "RAPPORT DE LA MISSION EXPLORATOIRE DEPECHEE DANS LA PERSPECTIVE DE L’ELECTION PRESIDENTIELLE ANTICIPEE DU 24 AVRIL 2005 AU TOGO", democratie.francophonie.org (French).
  17. ↑ "La transparence n’est pas au rendez-vous", L'Humanité, June 5, 2003 (French).
  18. ↑ "Former Togolese National Assembly Speaker, ex-premier form new opposition party", Radio France Internationale (nl.newsbank.com), 17 September 2005.
  19. ↑ "L’Alliance démocratique pour la Patrie représente une nouvelle espérance pour le Togo", Infosplusgabon (spcm.org), February 6, 2006 (French).
  20. ↑ Dahuku Péré, "Plainte en annulation des élections législatives anticipées du 14 octobre 2007 dans la circonscription électorale de la Kozah", Alliance website, October 19, 2007 (French).
  21. ↑ List of 2007 candidates in Kozah, CENI website (French).
  22. ↑ Text of Constitutional Court decision (final election results), October 30, 2007 (French).
  23. ↑ "L'Alliance en pleine désunion", Republicoftogo.com, 22 February 2010 (French).