President Faure Gnassingbé of Togo has signed a new Constitution that eliminates presidential elections.
Under the new legislation, parliament will have the power to choose the president, doing away with direct elections.
The election commission on Saturday announced that Gnassingbe’s ruling party had won a majority of seats, 108 out of 113 seats in parliament, and 137 out of 179 positions in the senate.
The new constitution now increases presidential terms from five to six years and introduces a single-term limit.
The almost 20 years that Gnassingbe has already served in office would not count toward that tally.
The constitution has also created a powerful figure similar to a prime minister, with extensive authority to manage government’s affairs, to be selected from the ruling party, which could become another avenue for Gnassingbe to extend his grip on power even beyond that new term.
Gnassinge had already amended the constitution in 2019 allowing him to reset the time period and run for two new additional mandates.
In 2005, he succeeded his father, Gnassingbe Eyadema, who ruled for almost four decades after taking office in a coup in 1967.
