President Faure Gnassingbe Togo’s ruling party won a crushing majority in legislative elections, authorities said, allowing the longtime leader to extend his rule under a contested constitutional reform.
Gnassingbe’s Union for the Republic party (UNIR) won 108 of 113 seats in the vote held last Monday, according to provisional results announced by the national electoral commission late Saturday.
Turnout was 61 percent, according to commission figures, but the triumph is total for Gnassingbe, already in power since 2005 after his father Gnassingbe Eyadema ruled the small West African state for nearly four decades.
Under the new constitution approved by lawmakers in April, Gnassingbe will 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.
Opposition parties denounced the constitutional reform as an “institutional coup”, creating a role…
Source: Guardian Newspaper
