Togolese voted in legislative elections on Monday after a divisive constitutional reform that opponents say allows President Faure Gnassingbe to extend his family’s decades-long grip on power.

The ballot comes after lawmakers this month approved the reform creating a new prime minister-style post opponents believe is tailored for Gnassingbe to avoid presidential term limits and stay in office.

In power for nearly 20 years, Gnassingbe succeeded his father Gnassingbe Eyadema, who ruled for almost four decades in the small coastal West African state wedged between Benin and Ghana.

Early turnout at polling stations in the capital had been slow, but the streets were calm and there no incidents reported.

Polls were to close at 1600 GMT and results will be released within the next six days.

Monday’s vote will elect 113 lawmakers and also for the first time 179 regional deputies from the country’s five districts who along with municipal councillors will elect a newly created Senate.

For Gnassingbe’s ruling UNIR party this makes Togo more representative, but opposition parties have mobilised supporters to vote against what they say is an “institutional coup”.

Gnassingbe, 57, has already won four elections, all contested by the opposition as flawed. He would have only been able to run one more time as president in 2025 under the previous constitution.

“We had a good electoral campaign. We denounced the flaws of the system and the Togolese are listening, they will do the job,” Jean-Pierre Fabre, leader of the main opposition party, National Alliance for Change, said after voting.