LOME
Incumbent President Faure Gnassingbe is leading Togo's presidential polls, while his main rival, opposition candidate Jean Pierre Fabre, is trailing far behind, according to figures released after 18 percent of the votes were counted.
Gnassingbe leads with 61.9 percent of the vote, while Fabre won 32 percent, the Independent National Electoral Commission (CENI) announced.
CENI Chairman Issifou Taffa Tabiou told reporters that the vote count had so far covered six electoral centers, the equivalent of 18 percent of the vote.
None of the three other candidates exceeded 1 percent of the vote, according to the count, while about 3 percent of the ballots were declared "invalid."
Nearly 3.5 million Togolese were eligible to cast ballots at nearly 4,112 polling centers countrywide.
Gnassingbe, 58, is the candidate of the Union for the Republic Party. He became president on April 24, 2005 after serving as acting president for two months following the death of his father, who had also served as president.
