Eyadema died in 2005 and his son Faure Gnassingbé then ran as the RPT candidate; although he officially won the election, the opposition again disputed the result, and serious violence erupted.

[5] As the election drew nearer, greater government activity and social spending was observed; infrastructure was built or improved and recruitment to the civil service was increased.

[7] The EU committed to sending an additional five billion CFA francs at a meeting with the Togolese government on 22 January 2010,[8] and it announced on 1 February that it would have 122 observers present for the election.

[12][13] Some other early announced candidates were the minor opposition leader Dahuku Péré, who led the Democratic Alliance for the Fatherland, as well as Kofi Yamgnane, who held dual nationality and served in the government of France under François Mitterrand.

[2] The Democratic Convention of African Peoples (CDPA) designated Kafui Adjamagbo-Johnson, a member of its steering committee, as its presidential candidate in early January 2010.

[15] Although RPT activists, both in Togo and abroad, called for President Faure Gnassingbé to run for re-election over the course of several months, he deferred any formal announcement of his candidacy.

Speaking on the occasion, RPT Secretary-General Solitoki Esso credited Gnassingbé with vast accomplishments, saying that—among other things—he had improved the political atmosphere, organized transparent elections, ended Togo's international isolation, and revitalized the economy.

[18] Agbéyomé Kodjo, a former Prime Minister leading the opposition Organisation to Build a United Togo (OBUTS), submitted his candidacy to CENI on 14 January 2010.

[19] Kodjo fiercely denounced Gnassingbé's "disastrous" record, saying that the state budget needed to be increased, and he pledged "no fewer than 21 emergency measures to restore confidence and boost consumer spending after the presidential election".

According to the Court, the contradiction was "of a nature to cause confusion over the identity of the person and consequently to weaken the legal and judicial security inherent in the highest office in the country".

He also praised the peaceful atmosphere and harshly denounced the UFC President, saying that Olympio "always embodied violence, malice, and revenge, and I am very happy that he is not a candidate because his influence on Togo was fatal".

[29] Reacting to the Constitutional Court's decision to validate his candidacy, UFC Secretary-General Fabre said that it was "unquestionably a message of hope for the Togolese people who aspire to a profound change".

Seeking to give the impression of solidarity amidst perceptions of internal disagreement, UFC First Vice-president Patrick Lawson said that the party was totally united behind Fabre's candidacy.

In a statement on 9 February, CDPA Secretary-General Léopold Gnininvi condemned the "cavalier" way the meeting was conducted, expressing annoyance that it was taken for granted that the candidates would all rally behind Fabre.

[39] Fabre said in an interview on 17 February that the coalition represented a majority of the opposition's electorate and that, in reference to the other parties, "it is up to them to join us"; expressing some exasperation, he said that "the ego is so strong in Togo that everyone thinks he can be President".

In its election report, the EU observer mission accused the RPT of exceeding the legal limit for campaign spending (around $100,000), but Bodjona said that claim was untrue.

The two main opposition parties, the Union of the Forces of Change (UFC) and the Action Committee for Renewal (CAR), strongly protested the single-round system.

Government Spokesman Pascal Bodjona dismissed the opposition concerns; he said that the voter rolls had been established prior to the 2007 parliamentary election and that it was up to CENI to decide whether to resume revising them.

[53] RPT Secretary-General Solitoki Esso released a statement on 28 January in which he accused the opposition of using the issue of revising the voter rolls as a delaying tactic.

[60] In light of the emphasis on having a peaceful vote, security forces had a heavy presence; 3,000 police and 3,000 gendarmes were assigned the task of preventing electoral violence.

"[61] Voting proceeded peacefully and without incident,[62] but the UFC immediately began pointing to issues that it identified as irregularities, such as the absence of serial numbers on the ballot papers.

Seeking to establish a reliable transmission method, a delegation from the European Union had met with Gnassingbé on 3 March and obtained his last-minute agreement to use the VSAT satellite system to transmit the results directly from each polling station.

However, following the vote, Taffa Tabiou said on 5 March that the VSAT machines had failed and that it would therefore be necessary for all 35 electoral district directors to bring physical proof of the results to Lomé.

[63] Fabre held a press conference on 5 March to declare victory, claiming that he had won about 75–80% of the vote;[62] he also accused the RPT of electoral fraud and said that the results being sent to CENI had no credibility.

"[48] Esso, the RPT Secretary-General, described the result as "great victory that gives us a lot of satisfaction and wipes off any doubts about the process",[67] while Bodjona dismissed the opposition as "bad losers".

[49] For its part, the EU observer mission released a report that noted the accusations of vote-buying by the RPT, but also suggested there was no evidence to support opposition claims of outright fraud.

[69] Lawson, the PRR candidate, grudgingly accepted Gnassingbé's re-election on 8 March,[70] but he nevertheless alleged fraud: "The vote was so expertly stolen by the ruling party that electoral observers will never understand what really happened.

Some of those involved said that they had thrown stones because Jean-Claude Homawoo—the CENI representative who had, in the eyes of Fabre supporters, demonstrated disloyalty during the run-up to the election—was present in the motorcade, but Homawoo said that he was not even in Togo at the time.

On that occasion, Fabre called on the people to wear yellow (the party color of the UFC) on 3 May, the date Gnassingbé was scheduled to be sworn in, as a symbolic gesture of protest.

According to the statement, it was impossible to expel the party's founder-president, who had been re-elected to his post as recently as July 2008, without holding an extraordinary congress to approve such a weighty decision.