Togo awaits election results

2005-04-26 09:01

Lome - Togo awaited the results of violence-scarred presidential elections on Tuesday, after rival sides pledged to form a national unity government whatever the result.

National television in the small West African nation quoted an official from the country's electoral commission as saying the results would "probably" be announced on Tuesday.

At least three people were killed when violence erupted during Sunday's polls and parties traded accusations of intimidation and fraud.

But rival Togolese leaders found a possible way out of the crisis on Monday at a meeting with Nigeria's President Olusegun Obasanjo, the chairman of the African Union, when they pledged to form a broad-based transitional regime.

Tension had been mounting in Togo since February 5, when veteran autocrat President Gnassingbe Eyadema died following 38 years in power.

'We've had difficult times'

The army initially attempted to install his 39-year-old son Faure Gnassingbe as his successor, but regional leaders insisted that elections be held.

Gnassingbe eventually stood in the poll as a the ruling party candidate, and was invited to the Nigerian capital Abuja as the expected winner of the vote even as rioting continued in Lome.

"I would like to tell you that inside Togo we've had difficult times, and what I want is to work with everybody ... That is why we are agreeing to a national government, a broad-based government," he told reporters.

He was joined in Abuja by Gilchrist Olympio - a political exile whose opposition Union of Forces for Change was represented in the presidential race by Emmanuel Akitani Bob - who agreed to work with the transitional regime.

"I invited Gil and Faure before the final result of the election that took place yesterday so that we can we chart a way forward," Obasanjo explained to reporters, flanked by his two Togolese guests.

"We've agreed that, bearing in mind that what has happened in the past 38 years was a government of one person, that whoever wins the election that has taken place will forge ahead with a government of national unity," he said.

Obasanjo added that the Togolese rivals had agreed that Togo's constitution would be amended to "satisfy what today we would call democracy, fundamental human rights, popular participation and the rule of law."

The transition will be monitored by a committee under the chairmanship of the African Union and including Togolese parties, the Ecowas regional bloc and ambassadors from west and central Africa, he added.

Following the news conference Gnassingbe and Olympio - whom Obasanjo said have never previously met - embraced for photographers.

Meanwhile in Togo at least 10 people were injured, three with gunshot wounds and two apparently by stun grenades, at Akodessewa in the working-class Be district of the capital, an opposition stronghold, medical sources said. - AFP

- SAPA