Issifou Okoulou-Kantchati (23 January 1951[1] – 20 October 2016) was a Togolese politician, who last served in the government of Togo as Minister of City Planning and Housing.
Biography
editOkoulou-Kantchati was born in Mango, located in the Oti Prefecture of Togo. He studied in France and became a member of the Central Committee of the Rally of the Togolese People (RPT) in 1977.[1] In the 1990s, Okoulou-Kantchati headed the Alliance of Democrats for the Republic (ADR), a political party.[2] He was Quaestor of the High Council of the Republic, which was established as the transitional parliament in 1991.[1] In an August 1996 by-election for a seat in the National Assembly from Oti, Okoulou-Kantchati, standing as the ADR candidate, placed second in the first round, receiving 32.89% of the vote against 40.19% for RPT candidate Stanislas Baba.[3] Baba then narrowly defeated him in the second round, receiving 51.41% of the vote.[4]
Okoulou-Kantchati later joined the RPT. In the March 1999 parliamentary election, he was elected to the National Assembly as the RPT candidate in the First Constituency of Oti Prefecture; he faced no opposition and won the seat with 100% of the vote.[5] He was re-elected to the National Assembly in the October 2002 parliamentary election and served as President of the Finance Commission in the National Assembly.[6] On 29 July 2003, Okoulou-Kantchati was appointed to the government as Minister of Energy and Water Resources.[7][8]
His house in Mango was attacked by opposition supporters amidst the violence that surrounded the April 2005 presidential election.[9] After that election, he was moved to the post of Minister of the Environment and Forest Resources on 20 June 2005.[8] He was the first candidate on the RPT's candidate list for Oti constituency in the October 2007 parliamentary election[10] and won a seat.[11] At the time of the election, he was the RPT Coordinator in Savanes Region.[12] Following the election, he was designated as one of seven members of a committee to amend the National Assembly's rules of procedure on 14 November 2007.[13] He remained in the government that was formed after the election in December 2007.[8]
Okoulou-Kantchati remained in his post as Minister of the Environment and Forest Resources until 15 September 2008, when he was instead appointed as Minister of City Planning and Housing.[8][14]
References
edit- ^ a b c Profiles of Togolese government ministers Archived 2007-04-27 at the Wayback Machine, etiame.com (in French).
- ^ L'afrique politique 1997: revendications populaires et recompositions politiques (1997), KARTHALA Editions, page 267 (in French).
- ^ Crocodile No. 157 Archived 2011-07-18 at the Wayback Machine, 8–14 August 1996 (in German).
- ^ West Africa (1996), page 1,339.
- ^ Journal Officiel de la Republique Togolaise Archived 2011-10-08 at the Wayback Machine, 20 April 1999, page 37 (in French).
- ^ Ebow Godwin, "Parliament Adopts Tightrope Budget", Ghanaian Chronicle, 3 February 2003.
- ^ "Le Togo annonce la composition du nouveau gouvernement", Xinhua (People's Daily), 31 July 2003 (in French).
- ^ a b c d List of governments of Togo Archived 2008-12-19 at the Wayback Machine, IZF.net (in French).
- ^ "Togolese ruling party raps opposition over 24 April election violence", Radio Togo, 25 April 2005.
- ^ List of 2007 candidates in Oti[permanent dead link], CENI website (in French).
- ^ Text of Constitutional Court decision (final election results) Archived 2007-11-29 at the Wayback Machine, 30 October 2007 (in French).
- ^ "Pour son soutien a des candidatures indépendantes : Natchaba est suspendu du RPT-Oti"[permanent dead link], Togoforum.com (in French).
- ^ Bulletins at National Assembly website Archived 2007-10-30 at the Wayback Machine (in French).
- ^ "L’équipe autour de Gilbert Fossoun Houngbo" Archived 2008-09-18 at the Wayback Machine, Republicoftogo.com, 15 September 2008 (in French).