Togo reopens border with Ghana after legislative elections

Togolese authorities have reopened their borders after they were closed to allow for the April 29 legislative elections to take place in the country.

The borders were sealed from midnight on Monday to midnight on Tuesday as Togolese citizens went to the polls to elect 113 parliamentarians, alongside 179 regional deputies and municipal councillors, with the task of electing a newly established senate.

Monday’s elections followed recent constitutional reforms in the country, transitioning from a presidential to a parliamentary system.

Gnassingbé would have been limited to one more presidential term (of five years) in 2025.

Some people on the Ghanaian side of the Ghana-Togo Border at Aflao, whom the Ghana News Agency (GNA) spoke to, said they were stranded by the closure as they least expected it.

They noted that during the country’s last election (the presidential election in 2020), the borders were left open, thus leading to the assumption that it would be the same for Monday’s legislative elections.