Posted on 04/26/2005 2:16:03 PM PDT by HAL9000
LOME, Togo (AP) - The son of Togo's longtime dictator has been elected to succeed him as leader of this impoverished West African country, officials said Tuesday - an outcome that sparked street fights between security forces and opposition supporters who burned barricades in the capital.Faure Gnassingbe, 39, won 60 per cent, or 1.3 million, of the votes cast in Sunday's violence-scarred election, said electoral commission chairwoman Kissem Tchangai Walla. Main opposition candidate Bob Akitani received 38 per cent, or 841,000 votes, she said.
"I'm very happy with these results," said Komi Koassou, campaign director for Gnassingbe's party. "Democracy states that the candidate with the majority of the votes wins - and the population has voted for its president."
Gnassingbe's father, Gnassingbe Eyadema, ruled this country of five million people for 38 years until dying in February of a heart attack. He was Africa's longest-serving leader.
The army then named Gnassingbe president in what many saw as a military coup. International pressure forced Gnassingbe to step down and promise elections amid opposition protests that descended into deadly violence. Parliamentary Speaker Babas Bonfoh took over as interim president.
Togolese angered by Gnassingbe's win erected flaming barricades in the streets of Lome and stoned passing vehicles. Residents scurried behind closed doors as plumes of heavy black smoke billowed over the seaside city.
In the opposition stronghold neighbourhood of Be, security forces fired tear gas grenades at stone-throwing protesters, witnesses said.
The United States had expressed "deep concern" about violence in the run-up to the election and urged the impoverished country to embrace democracy. Democratic progress could bring increased international aid and economic development to a country where one-third of the people live in poverty.
The average Togolese income is $270 US a year, down from $600 US in the 1980s. Unemployment affects nearly every household.
Opposition party officials, who accused the government of tampering with Sunday's ballots, called Tuesday for supporters to protest the election results.
"Faure can't win this election (fairly) and everyone knows it," Jean-Pierre Fabre, secretary general of Akitani's political party, told Radio France Internationale.
"The opposition is calling all its members to react and to stop this from happening," he said, without specifying what actions supporters should take.
Akitani went into hiding as voters went to polls Sunday, saying he feared for his life, and his whereabouts were not known.
The election results must be certified by Togo's constitutional court in coming weeks but are considered the final tally, even though they do not include ballots cast at about 700 polling stations that were destroyed during election violence Sunday.
Hundreds of opposition supporters rioted in the streets Sunday, angry at reports that members of the governing party stole ballot boxes or stuffed them with votes for Gnassingbe. A foreign diplomat said three men were shot to death near Lome's airport, but it was unclear by whom.
On Monday, Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo convened a meeting between Gnassingbe and another senior opposition figure, Gilchrist Olympio, hoping to forestall further violence. Obasanjo said afterward that no matter who prevailed at the ballot boxes, a government of national unity would share power.
Gnassingbe campaigned on that platform, promising to bring together the country's political parties, long divided by distrust and suspicion under Eyadema.
DANG!
Now I will never get all those millions in that bank over there.
This is an older story, but tonight I heard some people from Togo speak in a discussion forum.
What have been recent stories on Free Republic are stories on the Ivory Coast, well, guess what? They are close to each other on that side of Africa and both French speaking.
If anyone listens to this very late post; the refugees of Togo say, the French get the votes of all of their former colonies on UN matters, the French have an exclusive market there; this President now is robbing people out of house and home, expropriating properties. A very bleak scenario.
Just like the photos on that Ivory Coast story the other day, with "we want help from the USA(crossed out is France)" these Togalese really had an apprehension for the French if not dislike.
Not how I expected this to turn out, cause I once met a soccer team of theirs on the sideline, talking back and forth in French.
Not a good situation. I might try to place some Togo stories here when timely.
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