Stakeholders in Togo’s national elections taking place on April 25 are ready and have expressed their satisfaction with the process, despite some other new concerns.
Togo’s elections, originally planned for April 15, was postponed to April 25 at the instance of the Chair of the Authority of ECOWAS Heads of State and Government following an earlier consultative visit to Lome in March. The postponement was to enable Togo’s Independent National Electoral Commission with assistance from La Francophonie to complete a review of the electoral register in response to concerns raised by the political parties.Security officials have set up a joint border patrol team to secure the border and nearby communities.
Incumbent President Faure Gnassingbe is facing stiff opposition from opposition leader, Jean-Pierre Fabre, an economics graduate and former newspaper editor.
Meanwhile, ECOWAS has deployed a 100-member election monitoring group led by the former President of Liberia, Dr. Amos Sawyerr.
President Faure Gnassingbe looks set to win a third term in Saturday’s election, lengthening his family’s rule over Togo to more than 50 years. Jean-Pierre Fabre of the National Alliance for Change (ANC) party is likely to be Gnassingbe’s closest rival. The opposition has made complaints about the system for tallying results.
