©Afreepress (Lomé, the 29th April 2015)- President Faure Gnassingbe defied all odds to make history by winning  Togo’s presidential elections with a wide margin that has confounded his rivals into disbelief.

According to provisional results declared by the Independent National Electoral Commission on Tuesday night, Faure Gnassingbe swept the polls in four out of five economic regions of Togo.

“Based upon these results, the national electoral commission hereby observed that Faure Essozimna Gnassingbe is therefore elected on basis of provisional results that will be subjected to the constitutional court for confirmation,” chairman of the Togo Electoral Commission said.

Provisional results declared by the chairman of Togo’s electoral commissioner Issifou Taffa Tabiou  gave Faure Gnassingbe of the ruling UNIR party 1.214. 267 votes about 58.75 per cent against 722.347 votes about 34.95 per cent by his closest opposition coalition rival Jean-Pierre Fabre.

Veteran opposition leader, Aimé Gogué of  Democratic Alliance for integral development , ADDI party came third with 63.678 votes about 3.8 per cent.

Ex-army officer Gerry Taama of  NET party followed with a dismal score of 21.886 votes about 1.6 per cent with Tchassona Traoré of MCD Party at the bottom of the league  table with 20.386 votes about 0.99 per cent. In all over 3.5 (3.509. 258) voters registered for the presidential elections but 2.1million (2.105051) electors cast their votes and the number of suffrage is 2. 066.997.

The turnout was 55 per cent.

“I will like to congratulate the Chairmen of all the local electoral commissions and their members for the security that characterized the centralization process and also for accepting despite the three sleepless nights to do al they can in order to comply with today’s exercise”, the electoral commissioner said.

AU and Ecowas electoral observer missions identified a few anomalies in Saturday’s polls but both concluded that “voting, counting and compilation of results were done openly and peacefully without any major incidents”.
 
They two observer missions also urged all candidates to exclusively resort to legal means for the settlement of any dispute arising from this polls.
The provisional election results will have to be validated by Togo’s Constitutional Court after all disputes have been reviewed.

The Togo multi-party constitution requires the INEC to submit the provisional results to the Togo Constitutional Court within eight days after the declaration of provisional results.

The Constitutional Court will then  proceed to examine all election petitions deposited by aggrieved candidates for redress before to pronounce the definite election results within thirty days.
Thousands of ruling party supporters broke into jubilation in the northern sector of Lome. “I am very happy because this victory is clear without any allegations of fraud so nobody is going to demonstrate”, a ruling party militant declared.
 
These presidential elections offered Faure Gnassingbe the unique opportunity to rule Togo for a third term despite
But Francis Pedro Amouzun, vice-chairman of the electoral commission and also representative of Jean Pierre Fabre expressed dissatisfaction at the proceeding that led to the release of the provisional results.

“We held discussions with the Ghanaian and Ivorian heads of state and we were told that we should all what it takes to respect the deadline provided for by the electoral code. I was surprised when  I switched on my TV set to get to know that the chairman of the electoral commission was about to give the provisional results, despite claims by some opposition candidates that there were ballot boxes stuffing in some electoral districts in the northern parts of the country”,  the vice-chairman said.

The Togo multi-party constitution requires the electoral commission to submit the provisional results to the Togo Constitutional Court within eight days after the declaration of provisional results.
The Constitutional Court will then proceed to examine all election petitions deposited by aggrieved candidates for redress before to pronounce definitely election results within thirty days.

AU and Ecowas electoral observer missions identified a few anomalies in Saturday’s polls but both concluded that “voting, counting and compilation of results were done openly and peacefully without any major incidents”.

They two observer missions also urged all candidates to exclusively resort to legal means for the settlement of any dispute arising from this polls.

It will be recalled that the Gnassingbé family has been ruling since 1967 in Togo. But this time around many challenges are awaiting the man who will preside over the political destiny for the next five years in Togo. These challenges include the stormy crisis in the health and education sectors as well as the constitutional and institutional reforms. Faure Gnassingbe will rule Togo for another third term, despite calls by some opposition parties and civil rights organizations to return to the country’s 1992 constitution which limits the mandate of any Togolese head of state to only two terms.

Blamé Ekoue, Lomé