Togo Sunday held its first local elections in 32 years - during which a single family has ruled the West African nation - with most opposition parties taking part after boycotting 2018 parliamentary polls. The elections "mark a major advance in the establishment of democracy" in Togo, President Faure Gnassingbe said in a Facebook post. Gnassingbe has been in power for nearly 15 years since succeeding his father Eyadema Gnassingbe, who had led the country with an iron fist for 38 years.
He voted in his hometown of Pya, some 420 kilometres (260 miles) north of the capital Lome. Polling was low-key in Lome, with moderate turnout, an AFP reporter said. Casting his ballot, Atutu Lawson looked forward to "lots of changes in the neighbourhood," noting it had no market and that many homes did not have indoor toilets.
Another voter, Issouf Moudji, told AFP: "Our country is taking a great step forward. Now we will have representatives in our neighbourhood whom we can discuss our needs with." The previous councillors elected in local elections in Togo governed for 14 years from 1987 - despite being elected to five-year terms. Councillors were later replaced with "special delegations", tasked with organising new elections, whose positions were often filled with figures hand-picked by the government.
The country' 3.4 million eligible voters are called to elect 1,527 municipal councillors to six-year terms, renewable twice, in 117 towns. With the notable exception of the National Panafrican Party (PNP), which organised mass protests in April to call for a limit on presidential terms, all the main opposition parties fielded candidates in Sunday's elections.
The PNP, whose leader Tikpi Atchadam lives in exile, is demanding the release of three activists who have been held since the April protests. He was part of a coalition formed in mid-2017 that staged demonstrations in several cities seeking constitutional reforms and Gnassingbe's resignation. Some 8,000 police and security forces voted on Friday so that they could be deployed for Sunday's polling in the former French colony. Polls were to close at 4:00 pm (1600 GMT).
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