The Togolese Prime Minister, Gilbert Fossoun Houngbo, has presented his resignation and that of his government to President Faure Gnassingbé as a constitutional requirement following the investiture on Monday of the country's elected president for a second five-year term.

Togo's government has outlawed further demonstrations against the results of a March 4 presidential election, which opposition leaders say was rigged to favour the incumbent. The decree came a day ahead of a scheduled opposition rally in the seaside capital of Lome, escalating tensions in the West African state whose election had been widely seen as a test for regional democracy.

An evening of prayers and chants held in the Togolese capital, Lome, by supporters of the umbrella opposition group, Republican Front for Revival and Change (FRAC), was violently dispersed by the security forces using tear gas.

Togo's Constitutional Court declared Thursday incumbent President Faure Gnassingbe Essozimna winner of the presidential polls held 4 March, with 60.88 per cent of the votes cast, PANA reported from here. According to the final results, Gnassingbe, candidate of the Rally of the Togolese People (RPT), won 1,242,409 votes or 60.88 per cent, followed by Jean-Pierre Fabre, candidate of the Union of Forces for Change (UFC opposition) with 692,554 votes or 33.93 per cent.

The main opposition party in Togo has claimed widespread irregularities in the country's presidential election. People in Togo voted on Thursday to chose a new head of state - five years after hundreds died following the last, disputed election.

More than 3,000 local election observers, 6,000 soldiers, and representatives of international election transparency watchdog groups are scattered across Togo on the eve of a presidential election crackling with tension, yet billed as a "national reconciliation" by its leaders.

Brigitte Kafui Adjamagbo-Johnson, head of the opposition Democratic Convention of African Peoples party, is Togo's first female presidential candidate. But she has withdrawn from the electoral process.

The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) has denounced the vote on Friday October 30, 2009 by the National Assembly of a legislation reinforcing the powers of the High Authority of Audio-visual and Communication (HAAC) and which seriously threatens press freedom and freedom of expression in Togo.

The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) has denounced the vote on Friday October 30, 2009 by the National Assembly of a legislation reinforcing the powers of the High Authority of Audio-visual and Communication (HAAC) and which seriously threatens press freedom and freedom of expression in Togo.

The United Nations-backed Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria has signed a grant agreement with Togo worth $20 million over two years, the first part of a five-year grant that will allow the country to scale-up treatment and care for people living with HIV. “This agreement reflects Togo’s determination to continue its fight against the AIDS epidemic,” said Michel Kazatchkine, Executive Director of the Global Fund, who travelled to Lomé to sign the agreement.

Togo's parliament has voted unanimously to abolish the death penalty. The vote was witnessed by Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero. He has been campaigning for a global moratorium on the death penalty as a first step towards its total abolition.

Togo will hold presidential elections between 18 February and 5 March, 2010, a statement by Aboudou Assouma, chairman of the Constitutional Court, issued on Thursday in Lomé said.

With Africa once again experiencing unconstitutional takeover of power as witnessed recently in Mauritania, Guinea and Madagascar, Nigeria has won against a similar development in Togo. The warning was issued by Foreign Affairs Minister Ojo Maduekwe, who has just returned from a fact-finding mission to Togo, which is embroiled in what the Minister termed ''leadership tussle epidemic''.

The government estimates that nearly 180,000 people in Togo are HIV-positive as of 2008 – about 3.2 percent of the population. Some 60 percent are women, and almost 13,000 are children under 14. In December 2008, one month after the government made life-saving antiretroviral medication (ARV) free, IRIN met with some people living with HIV in the capital Lomé.

This year’s first-time fee waivers for primary and pre-school students in Togo have swelled enrolment, raising questions about how schools will fund additional classroom space, teachers and school supplies. Education experts said the government should have planned better before lifting school fees. Until this year, male students paid up to US$4 per year and female students about half that.

The Togolese government has increased assistance to the private press to 350 million CFA francs this year from 75 million CFA francs in 2008. The government said on Thursday the assistance would help the press improve performance through several components, namely training and equipment.

For years, the Togolese government and its NGO partners have been trying to convince women who perform female genital mutilation/cutting (FGM/C) to trade in their knives for microcredit loans and agricultural equipment. Despite a 10-year-old law in Togo that criminalises FGM/C some ethnic groups in Togo still report clandestine cuttings.

Parents, police and even judges are hesitant to press charges against human-traffickers because of fear of punishment, concern for the community and confusion about Togo’s 2005 anti-trafficking law, according to an NGO analysis of the law. Any abuse of power that leads to a child’s migration and exploitation constitutes trafficking, according to the 2000 UN Convention Against Transnational Organized Crime.

A private sector-employment agency in Togo that trains, places and advocates for domestic workers said it is trying to improve notoriously abusive work conditions for domestic workers. In October 2007, the Togolese government classified domestic work as one of the worst forms of labour, making it illegal for anyone younger than 18 to be employed as domestic workers.

The Togolese cabinet has presented a bill that will abolish capital penalty in a nation plagued with human rights violations. Human rights groups are delighted by the news.On 10 December, the symbolic day of the 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the Togolese government presented a bill that will abolish the death penalty in the country, if approved of by the Lomé parliament.