Togo opposition defies result

2005-04-28 09:04

Lome - Emmanuel Akitani-Bob, an opposition candidate in the presidential election held on Sunday in Togo, declared himself winner of the poll on Wednesday.

This came a day after the National Independent Electoral Commission (CENI) announced that Faure Gnassingbe, son of deceased head of state Gnassingbe Eyadema, was the provisional winner.

Tuesday's announcement was greeted with outrage by opposition supporters, who erected barricades and burned tires in the Togolese capital, Lome, to protest the outcome of the poll.

Although police responded by firing teargas and attempting to dismantle the barricades, this only served to spur on the supporters. "We're going to put up even more barricades, and make this country ungovernable," Celestin Soke, a 28-year-old apprentice tailor, told IPS.

Violence

Similar scenes could be viewed in the city on Wednesday, when fresh protests broke out. A dozen demonstrators are said to have been killed by gunfire, while several others were injured.

Thousands of Gnassingbe supporters also demonstrated in the capital, many arriving by bus from northern Togo, a Gnassingbe stronghold, armed with clubs and machetes.

According to CENI Chairperson Kissem Tchangai Walla, Gnassingbe garnered 60.22% of the vote, and Akitani-Bob 38.19%.

Harry Olympio, considered a more moderate opposition candidate, won 0.55% of the vote - in which almost two-thirds of those eligible to cast ballots did so. However, the commission noted that the count did not reflect votes placed in ballot boxes that had been destroyed by demonstrators.

For its part, the opposition swiftly claimed that "massive fraud" had taken place, not only during the election itself, but also in the verification of voter lists, and the distribution of voting cards.

The electoral campaign was also punctuated by incidents of violence, with rival militants clashing in several neighbourhoods of the capital. Six ruling party members and one opposition supporter are said to have died in these incidents.

"We refuse to accept that for the umpteenth time, they are stealing the election out from under us," Jean Pierre Fabre, general secretary of the Union of Forces of Change (UFC), told IPS. This group forms part of a six-party coalition represented at the polls by Akitani-Bob.

Gnassingbe took over as head of state after his father's death with the support of Togo's military - but agreed to hold elections after global leaders denounced the move as unconstitutional.

Many Togolese opponents of Gnassingbe, who came across the border from Ghana and now occupy part of the capital, are calling for mass resistance to the new regime.

Cheick Oumar Diarra, assistant executive secretary of the Economic Community of West African States, which deployed 150 election observers to Togo, said that several irregularities had been noted in Sunday's poll. However, these were not sufficiently serious to cast doubt on the election's credibility. - IPS

- SAPA