Togo’s main opposition on Monday rejected provisional electoral results showing the ruling party winning two-thirds of parliamentary seats, allowing the president’s family to maintain its decades-long grip on power. The main opposition coalition, Let’s Save Togo, had alleged irregularities even before full results in Togo’s parliamentary elections were announced by the electoral commission on Sunday night. Agbeyome Kodjo, a key figure in Let’s Save Togo, on Monday called the vote and results a “sham”. “It’s an electoral sham amid massive corruption and proven electoral fraud,” Kodjo, a former prime minister whose OBUTS party joined with Let’s Save Togo for the elections, told AFP. The West African nation’s constitutional court must still approve the results from Thursday’s election before they become final.
According to results released Sunday night by the electoral commission, President Faure Gnassingbe’s UNIR party won 62 of 91 seats, giving it a two-thirds majority in parliament.
If the results stand, the president’s party will control an even greater percentage of seats than it does currently. It won 50 of 81 seats in the last legislative elections in 2007.
The closest opposition party was Let’s Save Togo with 19 seats.
Observers from the African Union and West African bloc ECOWAS have said that the elections were held in acceptable conditions.
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