Lome: Togo’s incumbent President Faure Gnassingbe appeared set for a third term, with partial results from a weekend poll giving him a strong lead, according to election commission figures issued on Monday.
A victory in Saturday’s vote would extend his family’s almost 50-year rule over the tiny West African nation.
The Independent National Electoral Commission (CENI) said Gnassingbe had won 62 per cent of the vote, far ahead of his nearest rival Jean-Pierre Fabre with 32 per cent with about 10 per cent of ballots counted.
Only about half of the country’s 3.5 million voters turned out for the election, according to the CENI, which has five days to announce the final outcome.
Turnout was significantly lower than in 2010, when nearly two thirds of registered voters took part.
Experts had said the narrow chance of a loss for Gnassingbe would depend on a massive voter turnout, but civil society groups said participation rates were “very weak”.
CENI head Taffa Tabiou had said Sunday the electoral commission was still comparing results to ensure any announcements made “reflect reality”.
Gnassingbe has been in power since the death of his father, Gnassingbe Eyadema, in 2005, winning contested elections that year and five years later.
His father came to power in 1967, and ruled the country with an iron fist.
Analysts say divisions within the opposition five-party coalition Combat for Political Change (CAP 2015) combined with the benefits of incumbency made Fabre’s prospects of victory very dim.
The head of the Ecowas election observation mission, which sent 100 observers to monitor the polls nationwide, said there had been no major incident “likely to affect the integrity of the voting process”.
“Overall, the election of 25 April 2015 was free, transparent and organised in an acceptable manner,” the West Africa bloc’s Amos Sawyer told reporters.
UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon welcomed the smooth vote and urged “all political leaders and segments of society to continue to maintain the peaceful atmosphere that has prevailed throughout the electoral process,” his spokesman said in a statement.
Few people in the former French colony of roughly seven million people have felt the benefit of recent economic growth and according to the government, unemployment is rife at 29 per cent.
While Lome is considered an opposition stronghold, many in the countryside would rather keep Gnassingbe in power than vote for an opposition they mistrust.
Currently there are no limits to the number of times a president can stand for re-election. The opposition has called for a two-term limit.