List of presidents of Togo

Presidential standard of Togo

This is a **list of presidents of Togo** since the formation of the post of president in 1960, to the present day.

A total of four people have served as president (not counting one acting president and two interim military officeholders). Additionally, one person, Faure Gnassingbé, has served on two non-consecutive occasions.

Gnassingbé is the incumbent president, since 4 May 2005.

## Description of the office

### Election

The president of the Republic is elected by universal, direct and secret suffrage for a mandate of five (05) years.

He is re-eligible. As of 2021, there is a two-term limit for the president in the Constitution of Togo which was reinstated in 2019. This limit has been lifted for Gnassingbé Eyadéma in 2002 and for Faure Gnassingbé in 2019.

The election of the president of the Republic takes place by uninominal majority ballot in one (01) round.

The president of the Republic is elected with the majority of the suffrage expressed.

The vote is opened on convocation of the electoral body by decree taken in the Council of Ministers sixty (60) days at least and seventy-five (75) days at most before the expiration of the mandate of the president in office.

No one may be a candidate for the office of the president of the Republic if they:

1. are not exclusively of Togolese nationality by birth;
2. are not thirty-five (35) years of age on the date of the deposit of the candidature;
3. do not enjoy all their civil and political rights;
4. do not present a general state of physical and mental well-being duly declared by three (03) sworn physicians, designated by the Constitutional Court;
5. do not reside in the national territory for at least twelve (12) months.

The president of the Republic enters office within the fifteen days which follow the proclamation of the results of the presidential election.

### Oath of office

Before his entry into office, the president of the Republic swears before the Constitutional Court meeting in solemn hearing, in these terms:

> Before God and before the Togolese people, sole holders of popular sovereignty, We \_\_\_\_\_, elected President of the Republic in accordance with the laws of the Republic, solemnly swear.
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> — to respect and to defend the Constitution that the Togolese people have freely given themselves;
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> — to loyally fulfill the high functions that the Nation has confided in us.
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> — to be guided solely by the general interest and the respect of the rights of the human person, to consecrate all our forces to the promotion of development, of the common good, of peace and of national unity;
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> — to preserve the integrity of the national territory;
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> — to conduct our self at all times, as a faithful and loyal servant of the People.
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### Vacancy

In case of a vacancy of the presidency of the Republic by death, resignation or definitive incapacity, the presidential function is exercised provisionally by the president of the National Assembly.

The vacancy is declared by the Constitutional Court referred to [the matter] by the Government.

The Government convokes the electoral body within the sixty (60) days of the opening of the vacancy for the election of a new president of the Republic.

## Residences

After independence, the President of Togo used the Palace of the Governors as an office and residence. The Palace was formerly used by both German and French colonial administrators. In 1970, President Gnassingbé Eyadéma moved in a new Presidential Palace built near the Palace of the Governors. Another residence used by the Gnassingbé Eyadéma was the Presidential Residence of Lomé II. In 2006, a new Presidential Palace, financed by China, was inaugurated by President Faure Gnassingbé on the outskirts of Lomé.