Thousands of Togolese took to the streets of Lome on Saturday calling for the reinstatement of the constitution limiting terms of President Faure Gnassingbe who has been in power since 2005 after the death of his father, Gnassingbe Eyadema, who was president for 38 years.
Wearing the red colours of the opposition party and chanting "50 years is too long!","We believe this is it," human rights activist Farida Nabourema told Al Jazeera on Sunday, adding that Togo was at a turning point.
A demonstrator who spoke to Al Jazeera said the protesters were part of a peaceful movement to reinstate a 1992 constitution that brought in national multi-party democracy after decades of dictatorship.
But 10 years later, lawmakers amended it to enable Eyadema to run for another term.
Then, when he died, the military effectively tore up the constitution by installing his son as interim president, instead of the head of the national assembly, as was legally required.
The protests that followed Faure Gnassingbe's first election victory in 2005 triggered a violent security crackdown in which around 500 people were killed.
"We are protesting against the arbitrary nature of governance and denial of freedom to assemble," PNP leader Tikpi Atchadam told Reuters news agency
Meanwhile when police came to restore normalcy see what the crowd did to them.
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