Togo\u2019s Constitutional Court on Tuesday rejected opposition claims of electoral fraud and declared Faure Gnassingbe the winner with more than 70 percent of the February vote and president for a fourth term.<\/p>\n
In the final tally, the incumbent garnered 70.78 percent of the ballots while opposition leader and former prime minister Agbeyome Kodjodes took 19.46 percent, the court said<\/p>\n
\u201cHaving obtained the absolute majority of votes in the first round of the ballot, Mr Faure Gnassingbe has to be declared elected president of the Republic,\u201d announced Aboudou Assouma, president of the court.<\/p>\n
A petition filed by Kodjo, who heads the Movement of Patriots for Democracy and Development, was annulled by the court which found it \u201clacked evidence likely to support the allegations.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI dispute with all my strength these results,\u201d Kodjo, who had declared himself the winner before provisional results were released, told AFP.<\/p>\n
\u201cI consider that I am the legitimate victor in this election. I will continue to claim my victory,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n
The former prime minister, alleged \u201cserious irregularities\u201d in voting, including ballot stuffing and the use of fake polling stations.<\/p>\n
Togo\u2019s bishops, who back Kodjo\u2019s movement, on Monday put out a statement critical of the election noting it took place \u201cin a relatively calm climate\u201d but \u201cas far as transparency and fairness go the same cannot be said\u201d.<\/p>\n
Neither colonial power France nor the European Union has commented on the outcome of the ballot which keeps the Gnassingbe dynasty in power for more than half a century.<\/p>\n
The United States voiced concern over the limited checks on voting and urged the Electoral Commission to publish results polling station by polling station for greater transparency.<\/p>\n
Some 300 international observers were deployed, mainly from the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) and the African Union, with many African states supporting the incumbent.<\/p>\n
Gnassingbe, 53, has led the country of eight million people since taking over in 2005 following the death of his father Gnassingbe Eyadema, who ruled with an iron fist for 38 years.<\/p>\n
The electoral commission said turnout was over 76 percent. Gnassingbe\u2019s tally was by far the biggest of all the successive elections he has won.<\/p>\n
The president has insisted his continuing rule for five more years was central to ensuring security in Togo and preventing jihadist violence spilling over from Burkina Faso to the north.<\/p>\n
AFP<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Togo\u2019s Constitutional Court on Tuesday rejected opposition claims of electoral fraud and declared Faure Gnassingbe the winner with more than 70 percent of the February vote and president for a fourth term. In the final tally, the incumbent garnered 70.78 percent of the ballots while opposition leader and former prime minister Agbeyome Kodjodes took 19.46 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":30870,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_hide_featured_image":false,"_jetpack_featured_image_duplicate_dismissed":0,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[14],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-30867","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-foreign-jurisdiction"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t