April 15th Togo Presidential elections
More than 2 million Togolese participated in the April 25 presidential election that secured incumbent President Faure Gnassingbé’s third term in office. Faure has won with 59 percent of the votes, while his closest challenger, Jean-Pierre Fabre, reached only a 35 percent of the votes.
Togolese elections have raised numerous protests from the public, who aimed to limit the presidency to two terms, thus, not allo
wing the current ruling party to realize a third presidency in 2015. Protests were met with tear gas and a water cannon. In light of the situation, analysts have even questioned whether To
go would follow the example of neighboring Burkina Faso, in which long-ruling Blaise Compaoré was forced to resign from office after protesters called for his departure in October 2014. However, despite multiple efforts by the opposition, no constitutional change occurred before the 2015 election. Instead, Fabre called for Togolese citizens to support political alternation via the ballot box.
To sum up, the 2015 election was mostly a contest between the same candidates as in the 2010 election, though their parties had new names. The vote-share results were similar as well, differing by just a percentage point, although turnout was lower than in previous elections.
