Togo’s Constitutional Court confirms Faure Gnassingbe re- election

Togo’s Constitutional Court on Thursday confirmed the re-election of outgoing President Faure Gnassingbe with 60.88 percent of the vote cast.

The court made the confirmation after the Independent National Electoral Commission (CENI) published the provisional results showing that the 43-year-old incumbent won 60.92 percent of the tally in the March 4 presidential election.

CENI was authorized to publish the provisional results, pending a final decision by the Constitutional Court in the West African country.

According to the Constitutional Court, Jean-Pierre Fabre, the 58-year-old candidate of the leading opposition United Forces for Change (UFC), obtained 33.93 percent instead of 33.94 percent unveiled by CENI.

A total of seven candidates ran in the presidential race. The other opposition candidates included Yawovi Agboyibo of the Action Committee for Renewal, Agbeyome Kodjo of the Organization to Build Togo in Unity and Solidarity, Kafui Adjamagbo-Johnson of the Democratic Convention for African People, Lawson Nicolas of the Party for Renewal and Redemption and Kagbara Bassabi of the PanAfrican Democratic Party.

An estimated 2 million eligible voters out of the country’s 6. 15 million population cast their ballots in the election, which ended in calm.

But post-election tensions were reported with UFC chief Fabre challenging the results published by CENI. Fabre called on his supporters to take to the streets in protest while refusing to file complaints with the Constitutional Court.

The Togolese authorities briefly detained 11 UFC supporters on suspicion of fabricating documents to contest the official results.

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.