Following World War II, the territory began to elect members to the French National Assembly.
The first of these elections took place on 21 October 1945, with French Togoland and neighbouring Dahomey combined into a single constituency.
Following a coup in 1963 that ousted Olympio, early general elections were held, with Grunitzky as the sole presidential candidate.
Following another coup by Gnassingbé Eyadéma in 1967, elections were not held again until 1979 and the country became a one-party state under the Rally of the Togolese People (RPT); General elections that year saw Eyadéma re-elected unopposed as President and the RPT win all the National Assembly seats.
Although parliamentary elections the following year saw the RPT defeated by the Action Committee for Renewal (CAR), Eyadéma refused to appoint CAR leader Yawovi Agboyibo as Prime Minister, instead giving the post to Edem Kodjo, leader of the CAR's junior ally, the Togolese Union for Democracy; this caused a split in the coalition, and the RPT joined the government in their place.
Eyadéma was re-elected again in 1998 with 52% of the vote and the RPT won 79 of the 81 seats in the National Assembly in parliamentary elections the following year amidst a boycott by eight opposition parties.
Following Eyadéma's death in 2005, early presidential elections were held in the same year, and were won by his son Faure Gnassingbé, who received 60% of the vote.
However, the results were rejected by the United Nations General Assembly as the referendum had not included the option of independence and opted to continue with the trusteeship.
A 1961 referendum approved constitutional amendments allowing for direct elections for the president and the creation of a presidential republic.