Share

Togo court declares president re-elected

Lome - Togo's constitutional court declared Faure Gnassingbe president for a third five-year term after tallying final votes on Sunday.

Aboudou Assouma, head of the constitutional court, said on state television that the final results show that Gnassingbe received a majority of the votes with about 59%. His main opposition challenger Jean-Pierre Fabre received about 35% of the votes.

"Having obtained a majority of the votes, Faure Gnassingbe must be declared president," he said.

The win extends the Gnassingbe family's rule of Togo to nearly half a century.

Gnassingbe has been in power since 2005 when he succeeded his father, who died after 38 years in office. Later that year he won elections that were marred by serious allegations of fraud. At some polling stations that year, soldiers burst in and made off with ballot boxes. Gnassingbe then won re-election in 2010.

The opposition did not immediately react to the final results on Sunday. Fabre last week rejected provisional results and called for people to mobilise by all legal means.

A national grouping of civil society organisations gave the voting process fairly high marks. An observer mission of the West African regional bloc Ecowas said it turned up "no major incident that may taint the credibility of the voting process".

Gnassingbe will be sworn in as president on Monday, said Assouma.

We live in a world where facts and fiction get blurred
Who we choose to trust can have a profound impact on our lives. Join thousands of devoted South Africans who look to News24 to bring them news they can trust every day. As we celebrate 25 years, become a News24 subscriber as we strive to keep you informed, inspired and empowered.
Join News24 today
heading
description
username
Show Comments ()
Voting Booth
Do you think corruption-accused National Assembly Speaker Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula will survive a motion of no confidence against her?
Please select an option Oops! Something went wrong, please try again later.
Results
No, her days are numbered
41% - 507 votes
Yes, the ANC caucus will protect her
59% - 717 votes
Vote
Rand - Dollar
18.90
+0.2%
Rand - Pound
23.86
+0.2%
Rand - Euro
20.37
+0.3%
Rand - Aus dollar
12.31
+0.2%
Rand - Yen
0.12
+0.2%
Platinum
908.05
0.0%
Palladium
1,014.94
0.0%
Gold
2,232.75
-0.0%
Silver
24.95
-0.1%
Brent Crude
87.00
+1.8%
Top 40
68,346
0.0%
All Share
74,536
0.0%
Resource 10
57,251
0.0%
Industrial 25
103,936
0.0%
Financial 15
16,502
0.0%
All JSE data delayed by at least 15 minutes Iress logo
Editorial feedback and complaints

Contact the public editor with feedback for our journalists, complaints, queries or suggestions about articles on News24.

LEARN MORE