LOME: Togolese voted in legislative elections on Monday after a divisive constitutional reform that opponents say allows President Faure Gnassingbe to extend his family's decades-long grip on power.
The ballot comes after lawmakers this month approved the reform creating a new prime minister-style post opponents believe is tailored for Gnassingbe to avoid presidential term limits and stay in office.
In power for nearly 20 years, Gnassingbe succeeded his father Gnassingbe Eyadema, who ruled for almost four decades himself in the small coastal West African state wedged between Benin and Ghana.
"This is the first time I am voting, because I lived in a neighbouring country before. I came out early to avoid crowds," said Koffi Ohini, a farm technician, 24, who cast his ballot in the capital Lome. "I want to vote because these elections are important."
Early turnout at polling stations in the capital was slow but the streets were calm.
Monday's vote will elect 113 lawmakers and also for the first time 179 regional deputies from the country's five districts who along with municipal councillors will elect a newly created Senate.
For Gnassingbe's ruling UNIR party this makes Togo more representative, but opposition parties have mobilised supporters to vote against what they say is an "institutional coup".
With a population of nearly nine million, more than half under the age of 25, Togo's economy is mainly agrarian. But Lome has one of the busiest deep sea ports in West Africa, helping Togo weather the fallout of the Ukraine war and the pandemic.
According to the new constitution adopted by lawmakers on April 19, Togo's president becomes a mostly ceremonial role elected by parliament, and not the people, for a four-year term.
Togo's shift from a presidential to a parliamentary system means power now resides with the new president of the council of ministers, a sort of super-Prime Minister, who automatically will be the leader of the majority party in the new assembly. Gnassingbe's Union for the Republic, or UNIR party, already dominates parliament. If the ruling party wins, he can assume that new post. Results from the ballot are expected to be released within six days. — AFP
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