Togo: Ruling party win majority seat in Parliament, boosts term elongation for president Gnassingbe

Following the recently conducted election in Togo, the ruling party has won 108 out of 113 seats in parliament, according to the final provisional results released by the electoral umpire.

The landslide victory for President Faure Gnassingbe‘s UNIR party comes after the outgoing parliament approved controversial constitutional revisions that might extend his 19-year rule.

The new charter, approved in March, also established a parliamentary system of government, which means the president would be elected by parliament rather than by equal voting rights.

Opposition parties were expecting to gain seats in the April 29 vote so that they could confront the UNIR party, which had boycotted the previous legislative election and virtually controlled parliament.

The election was postponed twice due to opposition parties accusing Gnassingbe of using constitutional modifications to allow him to reign for life.

Constitutional revisions passed unanimously in a second legislative vote earlier in April reduced presidential terms from five to four years, with a two-term limit.

Already in power for nearly two decades, Gnassingbe succeeded his father, Gnassingbe Eyadema, who was the president for nearly four decades in the small coastal West African state.

Opposition parties slammed the constitutional changes as an “institutional coup” because they created a role tailor-made for Gnassingbe to avoid presidential term limits and continue his family’s political lineage.