Togo faces a third term under President Faure Gnassingbé following April’s elections. Gnassingbé’s family has ruled the West African country for 48 years, following his father’s 1967 coup.
The country’s Independent National Electoral Commission says Gnassingbé took 59 per cent of the vote and his main rival Jean-Pierre Fabre 35 per cent. But the opposition rejected these results as ‘fraudulent’, bearing no resemblance to those it collected in polling stations. Last year the opposition failed to limit presidents to two terms, as in most neighbouring states. Although the Economic Community of West African States declared the election free and fair, the 55-per-cent turnout means under a third of Togo’s six million people voted for Gnassingbé.
