Kwame-Mensah Jacques Amouzou (born 25 July 1936) is a

Togo Togo, officially the Togolese Republic, is a country in West Africa. It is bordered by Ghana to Ghana–Togo border, the west, Benin to Benin–Togo border, the east and Burkina Faso to Burkina Faso–Togo border, the north. It is one of the le ...

lese politician and businessman. An ethnic Ewe, Amouzou was a minor candidate in both the

1993 The United Nations General Assembly, General Assembly of the United Nations designated 1993 as: * International Year for the World's Indigenous People The year 1993 in the Kwajalein Atoll in the Marshall Islands had only 364 days, since its ...

and 1998 presidential elections. He is the President of the Union of Independent Liberals (ULI). Amouzou was "widely perceived as a front" for President

Gnassingbé Eyadéma Gnassingbé Eyadéma (; born Étienne Eyadéma Gnassingbé, 26 December 1935 – 5 February 2005) was a Togolese military officer and politician who served as the third president of Togo from 1967 until his death in 2005, after which he was immed ...

during the 1990s.

Political career

Amouzou was born in Gbatope, located in

Zio Prefecture Zio is a prefecture located in the Maritime Region of Togo. The prefecture covers 2,164 km2, with a population in 2022 of 500,032. The prefecture seat is located in Tsévié Tsévié is a city and canton in the Maritime Region of Togo. It i ...

.''Journal Official de la Republique Togolaise''
6 August 1993, page 3 . At the time of the August 1993 presidential election, Amouzou ran as an independent candidate."Aug 1993 – Election victory for Eyadema"
''Keesing's Record of World Events'', volume 39, August 1993 Togo, page 39,583. He and Ife Adani were the only candidates to stand against President Eyadéma, who won 96% of the vote. Amouzou and Adani were not considered serious challengers; all of the major opposition leaders chose to boycott the election. Led by Amouzou, the ULI was founded in November 1993 as a moderate opposition party, representing the political space between Eyadéma's

Rally of the Togolese People The Rally of the Togolese People (, RPT) was the ruling political party in Togo from 1969 to 2012. It was founded by President Gnassingbé Eyadéma and headed by his son, President Faure Gnassingbé, after the former's death in 2005. Faure Gnassin ...

(RPT) and the radical opposition

Collective of Democratic Opposition-2 A collective is a group of entities that share or are motivated by at least one common issue or interest or work together to achieve a common objective. Collectives can differ from cooperatives in that they are not necessarily focused upon an e ...

(COD-2). In the February 1994 parliamentary election, he ran as a candidate in Zio Prefecture, but did not win a seat. Amouzou and the ULI were viewed as close to the RPT, and Amouzou was described as "virtually a second RPT candidate" at the time of the 1998 presidential election; his critics alleged that he was merely a tool of Eyadéma who was used to manipulate the political playing field in Eyadéma's favor. He placed last in the 1998 election with 0.35% of the vote.''Africa Today'', volume 4
(1998), pages 24–25 and 29.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Amouzou, Jacques 1936 births Living people Togolese politicians 21st-century Togolese businesspeople Ewe people