Togo re-elects president in disputed vote

The small West African country of Togo re-elcted its national leader Thursday when Faure Gnassingbe won with 1.2 million votes.

Gnassingbe has been the President of Togo since 2005, following the death of his father, Gnassingbe Eyadema, and his family has lead Togo for more than 40 years.

Jean-Pierre Fabre, the opposition candidate from the Union of Forces for Change Party, received merely a third of the votes. Former Togo prime minister Yawovi Agboyibo received less than 3 percent of votes.

Since the results were released on Saturday, life in Lome, the capital, has been called calm. Yet before the announcements of the results, demonstrators led by Fabre filled the main square and were broken up by the riot police.

Fabre has deemed the results fraudulent. He said there were many activities during the election that exhibited voting irregularities.

For now, Togo’s future seems to be a highly contested issue. Togo’s constitutional court has yet to approve the results of the election, and the UFC is sure to make more noise during the proceedings that will be held later this week.