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TOGO’S   ruling   party   has   won   more than    two-thirds   of   the    seats   in    last week’s   parliamentary   election,   according   to   results   announced   by   the   tiny   West   African   nation’s   elections   commission   late on Sunday.Opposition parties had hoped to win the parliamentary majority needed to push through reforms to curb the power of one of Africa’s oldest political dynasties. President Faure Gnassingbe’s family has ruled Togo for nearly five decades.

But Gnassingbe’s UNIR party won 62 out of 91 seats in the single-chamber body, the commission announced on national television. UNIR held 50 of 81 parliamentary seats before the election on Thursday.

Togo’s 10 opposition parties, which are pushing for a two-term limit on the presidency that would bar Gnassingbe from running for reelection in 2015, together took just 25 seats.

Independents and a party currently in Gnassingbe’s government took the remaining four seats.
“The National Independent Elections Commission wished to organise a transparent, peaceful electoral process. It’s pleased to have fulfilled its mission,” Angel Aguigah, the commission president, said following the announcement of the results.

The results will be transferred to Togo’s constitutional court which will hear any challenges before certifying them.
While   the   election   was   not   marked by   the   kind   of   violence   that   has   tarnished   some   previous   polls,   the   principal opposition grouping, CST, has denounced what it said were irregularities and evidence of fraud.

Election observer missions including from the African Union and regional bloc Ecowas said the process had been acceptable and transparent.
The European Union’s High Representative for Foreign Affairs, Catherine Ashton, called for any disputes over the results to be settled through the proper legal channels.

“It is important that all Togolese continue to demonstrate responsibility by privileging dialogue and refusing violence,” she said in a statement.
Gnassingbe’s father, Gnassingbe Eyadema, seized power in a 1967 military coup.

The current president was put in power with army backing upon his father’s death in 2005 and won presidential elections organised later that year and again in 2010 that the opposition said were marred by fraud. — Reuters.