Faure Gnassingbe has won a third term as Togo’s president, electoral officials say.
According to provisional results, Faure Gnassingbe gained 59% of the vote, extending his family’s 48-year hold on power.
Observers from the African Union and regional bloc ECOWAS (Economic Community of Western African States) said the election was free and fair, despite opposition complaints of voting irregularities.
Faure Gnassingbe, 48, has ruled since the death of his father, Gnassingbe Eyadema, who took power in a coup in 1967.
His main rival, opposition candidate Jean-Pierre Fabre, took 35% of the vote.
On April 27, Jean-Pierre Fabre called for a delay in announcing the results, citing widespread irregularities.
Later, Jean-Pierre Fabre said that he would leave the country’s Independent National Electoral Commission (CENI) “to do its work”.
The results still need to be confirmed by the country’s Constitutional Court.
Turnout was around 53-55%, according to CENI – at least 10% lower than the last elections in 2010.
The 2005 elections, which brought Faure Gnassingbe to power, were overshadowed by fraud allegations and violent protests which left at least 400 people dead.
In 2014, opposition protests failed to bring about constitutional changes limiting the president to two terms in office – a move that would have prevented Faure Gnassingbe from standing.
Togo’s GDP has more than doubled since 2005 and economic growth reached 5.6% in 2014.
However, Faure Gnassingbe’s critics say the benefits have mainly gone to a wealthy minority, while most ordinary Togolese still suffer from high poverty and unemployment rates.
Women in Togo have been urged to abstain from sex for a week from Monday to push their demand for reform and President Faure Gnassingbe’s resignation.
The ban has been called by opposition coalition Let’s Save Togo, made up of nine civil society groups and seven opposition parties and movements.
Opposition leader Isabelle Ameganvi said that sex could be a “weapon of the battle” to achieve political change.
The coalition wants President Faure Gnassingbe, whose family has held power for decades, to stand down.
“We have many means to oblige men to understand what women want in Togo,” said Isabelle Ameganvi, leader of the women’s wing of the coalition.
She said she had been inspired by a similar strike by Liberian women in 2003, who used a sex strike to campaign for peace.
“If men refuse to hear our cries we will hold another demonstration that will be more powerful than a sex strike,” she added.
Women in Togo have been urged to abstain from sex for a week from Monday to push their demand for reform and President Faure Gnassingbe's resignation.
Togo has been run by the same family for more than four decades.
President Faure Gnassingbe took power in 2005 following the death of his father, Gnassingbe Eyadema, who ruled Togo for 38 years. The president was re-elected in 2010.
The strike was announced at a rally on Saturday in Lome, attended by thousands of people.
The rally was held to protest against recent electoral reforms, which demonstrators say will make it easier for Faure Gnassingbe’s party to win re-election in the parliamentary polls set for October.
Activists say that the strike will motivate men who are not involved in the political movement to pursue its goals, which include an end to the system allowing unlimited presidential terms.
Earlier this month, two anti-Gnassingbe protests were dispersed by police using tear gas and more than 100 people were arrested.
The sex strike was welcomed as a political tool by some women in Lome.
“It’s a good thing for us women to observe this sex strike as long as our children are in jail now. I believe that by observing this, we will get them released,” Abla Tamekloe told the Associated Press.
“For me, it’s like fasting, and unless you fast, you will not get what you want from God.”
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