Togo's ruling party wins majority in local elections

Togo’s ruling party won the June 30 local elections, winning more than 60% of municipal councillor seats in 114 municipalities across the country.

According to provisional results released on Friday evening by the National Independent Electoral Commission (Céni).

The Union for the Republic (UNIR), which has been a huge success in several localities in the north of the country, won 895 of the 1,490 municipal council seats.

Next to it is the National Alliance for Change (ANC), the Opposition Coalition (C14) and the Union of Forces for Change (UFC) with 134, 131 and 44 municipal councillors respectively.

The vote did not take place in three municipalities for “technical reasons”. No dates have been announced for the elections in these three locations.

The participation rate is estimated at 52.46%, according to the Céni. Participation was particularly low in the Togolese capital Lomé.

A total of 570 lists of political parties and independents were selected by the Supreme Court for these municipal elections, the first since 1987 in the country presided over since 2005 by Faure Gnassingbé.

His father, General Eyadéma Gnassingbé, had ruled the small West African country with an iron fist for 38 years.

With the exception of the Pan-African National Party (PNP), all the main opposition political parties, which boycotted the December 2018 parliamentary elections and no longer have any representation in Parliament, have submitted lists and now hope to establish their local presence through these elections.

The party PNP, whose leader Tikpi Atchadam lives in exile, is demanding the release of its detained activists, including three leaders imprisoned following demonstrations against the government on 13 April.