Togo has reported a low turn-out for the controversial parliamentary elections that began today.
It comes after constitutional changes which critics said were aimed at helping President Faure Gnassingbé extend his family’s decades-long grip on power.
The reforms saw Togo’s presidential system replaced with a parliamentary one, which would allow Mr Gnassingbé to avoid presidential term limits and stay in office.
The new amendments mean that the president will no longer be elected by popular vote but by members of parliament and that the role itself will now be largely ceremonial, limited to one four-year term.
He has been in power for nearly 20 years and succeeded his father Gnassingbé Eyadéma, who ruled Togo for nearly four decades.
Some 4.2 million eligible Togolese voters headed to the polls to vote in delayed and controversial parliamentary elections that are causing tensions in a West African region already plagued by instability.