The Party for Democracy and Renewal (French: Parti pour la Démocratie et le Renouveau) is a political party in Togo. It was founded on May 1, 1991, and its National President is Zarifou Ayéva.[1]
The party has held three statutory congress: in 1991, 1998, and on February 24, 2007.[1]
Ayéva ran as the PDR candidate in the June 1998 presidential election, taking fourth place with 3.02% of the vote according to official results.[2] On August 17, 1998, the PDR was the target of two explosions: one damaged its prefectural office in Sokodé and the other damaged the home of a PDR official in Bafilo. On the same day, a residence belonging to Ayéva was ransacked by security forces.[3]
The party boycotted the March 1999 parliamentary election along with the rest of the opposition,[4] as well as the October 2002 parliamentary election.[5] It participated in the October 2007 parliamentary election,[6] but did not win any seats.[7]
Ayéva has been accused of leading the party in an autocratic manner. The resignations of many leading members of the party, including three—Tchassona-Traoré Mouhamed, Innoussa Nafiou, and Adam Abdou Rahamane—in September 2006, have been attributed to this alleged tendency.[8]