Re-election in the first round and a fourth term for Faure Gnassingbé. This was announced, on the night of Sunday, February 23 to Monday, February 24, the Independent National Electoral Commission (CENI).

According to these official results, the Togolese president obtains 72.36% of the votes, far ahead of the opposition candidate Agbéyomé Kodjo who collects only 18.37% of the votes. The latter denounces fraud and also claims victory. The third candidate, Jean-Pierre Fabre, is content with 4.35% of the votes. A total of seven candidates were in the running.

The Minister of Public Service Gilbert Bawara, who is also one of the first supporters of the Head of State, spoke of "an unprecedented score" and a "plebiscite" for the candidate of the ruling party, Union for the Republic ( Unite). He was elected with just over 58% of the vote five years ago.

Increase in participation

The participation rate was 76.63%, again much higher than in 2015 (60.99%). It is the first time that results have been announced so quickly in Togo, just over 24 hours after the presidential poll which took place on Saturday in a calm atmosphere.

Faure Gnassingbé, who came to power in 2005 after the death of his father, General Gnassigbé Eyadéma, who had ruled Togo for 38 years, has since been re-elected in elections that have been highly contested by the opposition.

A few hours before the announcement of the official results, the opposition outsider Agbéyomé Kodjo, former Prime Minister and President of the National Assembly, had proclaimed himself "democratically elected president".

"In view of the results that we have compiled through the minutes at our disposal, our candidate won the presidential election (...) in the first round with a score varying between 57 and 61%," he said. to the press from his home in Lomé. "I am the democratically elected president, and I promise to form an inclusive government in the coming days," he added, inviting the outgoing president to "a patriotic outburst for a peaceful transfer of power".

"Many frauds"

Agbéyomé Kodjo had denounced on Saturday evening "numerous frauds" having enamelled the ballot, assuring that the vote had been "a real tsunami" in his favor. The candidate of the Patriotic Movement for Development and Democracy (MPDD) had surprised on Saturday during the count, especially in Lomé, the capital, where he preceded the National Alliance for Change (ANC), the party of the historic leader of the opposition, Jean-Pierre Fabre.

The vote took place without violence, but civil society has identified ballot box stuffing and inversions of results. Opposition delegates were also denied access to certain polling stations, according to the opposition, and the Internet was cut intermittently in the capital or completely in certain sensitive regions.

These incidents are in addition to the withdrawal of accreditation by many observers from the Church and civil society, as well as the abandonment of the electronic security system for the results a few days before the vote.

These results are a blow for the historic opponent Jean-Pierre Fabre (ANC), who had also recognized his defeat on Saturday evening in a brief press release. Many Togolese reproached this historic rival of the head of state for not having taken advantage of the monster demonstrations of 2017-2018 where tens of thousands of people regularly took to the streets to demand the resignation of "Faure".

With AFP

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