The former French colony, Togo heads to the polls today to vote to choose between keeping a dynasty that has ruled the tiny West African nation for more than half a century, or a new leader.
Voting occurred today the 22nd of February at 07:00 GMT and closed at 16:00 GMT. Provisional results will be released six days hence.
Faure Gnassingbe faces six rivals from a divided and historically weak opposition, including former Prime Minister Gabriel Messan Agbeyome Kodjo, who represents a coalition of opposition and civil society groups and Jean-Pierre Fabre, a former journalist and human rights campaigner who came second in elections in 2010 and 2015.
Faure has been ruling Togo for 15 long years now and hopes to extend his family’s rule of more than half a century.
The 53-year-old leader was installed by the military as interim president in 2015, ignoring a law that said the head of the national assembly should take over from his father, Eyadema Gnassingbe, who led the country for 38 years after seizing power in a coup in 1967.
According to the African Development Bank, more than half of Togo’s population lives in poverty but Gnassingbe has said he will continue reforms that have helped achieve annual economic growth of about five percent in recent years.
