LOME, May 06 (AFP): Togo's opposition says it needs to "reinvent" itself after winning just five seats in legislative elections it has dismissed as an "electoral masquerade".
Opposition parties hoped for a strong showing in the April 29 ballot after a contested constitutional reform, which they say will allow President Faure Gnassingbe to extend his already nearly two-decade rule.
Gnassingbe's ruling Union for the Republic or UNIR party won 108 of the 113
parliament seats in the small West African State sitting between Ghana and Benin.
Under the new constitution, it means Togo's leader can now assume a new role as president of the council of ministers, a kind of prime minister position which critics say will allow him to skirt term limits.
The legislative and regional vote results were released over the weekend. Voter turnout was 61 percent, according to electoral officials.
"These results are a real lesson for the opposition, we need to reinvent ourselves," said Paul Dodji Apevon, president of the opposition Democratic Forces for the Republic party, which won one seat.
"These were not elections, it was a masquerade, it was an electoral stick up," he added, claiming "massive fraud".
Opposition parties boycotted the last parliament election in 2018, citing irregularities.
But this time they tried to mobilise supporters to reverse the reform they condemned as an "institutional coup".
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