Togo’s electoral commission announced on Saturday that the ruling party emerged victorious with a parliamentary majority in the legislative elections held in April.
This outcome follows a controversial constitutional reform that critics argue enables President Faure Gnassingbe to prolong his tenure in office.
Gnassingbe’s Union for the Republic party (UNIR) won 108 of 113 seats in the new assembly, according to provisional results announced by the national electoral commission.
The participation rate in the election was 61 percent, according to the electoral commission president Dago Yabre, who gave the results in a national broadcast.
Under the new constitution approved by lawmakers in April, Gnassingbe will now be able to take a new post as president of the council of ministers, a role similar to prime minister that is automatically assumed by the leader of the majority party in parliament.
Already in power for nearly 20 years, Gnassingbe succeeded his father Gnassingbe Eyadema, who ruled for almost four decades in the small coastal West African state between Benin and Ghana.
Opposition parties denounced the constitutional reform as an “institutional coup” for creating a role tailor-made for Gnassingbe to evade presidential term limits and extend his family’s political dynasty.
UNIR loyalists argue that the reform has enhanced Togo’s democracy by making it more representative.
Under the previous constitution, Gnassingbe would have been eligible to run for the presidency just one more time in 2025.
President Gnassingbe, aged 57, has already secured victory in four elections, though they were all criticized as flawed by the opposition.
The main opposition boycotted the last parliamentary election in 2018, citing irregularities. However, this time they mobilized supporters to challenge UNIR’s dominance.
As per the new constitution, Togo’s president now holds a primarily ceremonial role, elected by parliament rather than the people, for a four-year term.
The transition from a presidential to a parliamentary system means that power now lies with the new president of the council of ministers, who will be the leader of the majority party in the new assembly.
For the opposition, this implies that Gnassingbe could remain in power without term limits as long as UNIR maintains its majority status in the national assembly.
Regional election observers expressed satisfaction with the conduct of the April 29 election, which included voting for regional representatives responsible for selecting members of the senate, a newly established second chamber.
However, opposition parties criticised some irregularities in the legislative election and contested the constitutional reform’s legality in the court of the regional bloc Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS).
Despite opposition efforts to protest against the reform, authorities blocked political rallies in Togo following an attack on the large market in Lome, during which a military police officer lost his life.
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