Roundup: Togo kicks off presidential vote amid serenity

Togo's voters began to cast their ballots on Saturday to choose a new president amid peace and serenity.

Some 3.5 million eligible voters of the West African nation will decide between incumbent president Faure Gnassingbe and four challengers in 8,994 polling stations nationwide, which were opened at local time 7:00 a.m. and set to close at 4:00 p.m.

To ensure a transparent, democratic and free poll, nearly 2,506 observers are mobilized, of which 490 from the African Union, West African Economic and Monetary Union (UEMOA) and the Goree Institute.

Gnassingbe is seeking a third term in office. He won presidential election on April 2005, and was re-elected for a second term in 2010.

Gnassingbe who is considered as the front runner, is contesting against four other opposition candidates among them Jean-Pierre Fabre of Combat for Political Change (CAP-2015), Gerry Taama of the New Engagement for Togo (NET), Aime Gogue of Alliance of Democrats for Integral Development (ADDI) and Mouhamed Tchassona Traore of the Citizen's Movement for Democracy and Development (MCD).

During the two-week campaign period, the incumbent president moved across the country trying to sell his policies to the electorate.

Basing on the strength of his party, Union for the Republic (UNIR) which won 62 out of 91 seats in parliament after the 2013 legislative elections, Gnassingbe promised to reconstruct and modernize Togo.

Fabre who came second during the 2010 presidential elections, is the main challenger of the incumbent president. With 16 members in parliament, his party is the second largest in parliament.

On his part, Gogue has based his campaigns on a long political career to promise voters constitutional reforms and ending of perennial problems of lack of water and electricity.

Mouhamed Traore has equally based his campaigns on a long political career that will see him initiate changes in the country.

Taama, the youngest among the five candidates, has used his closeness to the youth to propose a policy that will promote wealth distribution among the Togolese population where at least 60 percent live in poverty.

According to political observers, the division in the Togolese opposition will most likely hand a win in the first round to the incumbent president during Saturday's election.

To guarantee transparency and fairness during the elections, close to 2,506 observers have been mobilized, among them 490 from the African Union, the Economic Community of West African States, the West African Economic and Monetary Union and the Goree Institute.

At the national level, the civil society has deployed 1,216 observers, while the UN Office for the High Commissioner for Human Rights has deployed 800 human rights observers to the ground.

On the security front, 8,000 security officers have been deployed to guarantee peaceful elections in the 8,994 polling stations across the country.

Faure Gnassingbe came to power in April 2005, following the death of his father General Gnassingbe Eyadema who had ruled Togo for 38 years. Endi