Togo opposition boycotts parliamentary sitting

Opposition legislators boycotted the opening of Togo’s parliamentary year to protest the re-election of President Faure Gnassingbe, a parliamentary source said on Wednesday.

Only 50 ruling RPT members were in the 81-seat parliament at Tuesday’s opening ceremony, a parliament official told AFP on condition of anonymity.

Twenty-seven deputies of the opposition Union of Forces for Change (UFC) and four from the Action Committee for Renewal (CAR) boycotted the ceremony.

“We decided not to participate in this ceremony to show our disapproval at the way the electoral process was conducted and the manner the protests were repressed,” Isabelle Ameganvi, a UFC vice president, said on private media.

“It is to say we are fed up with the fact that in Togo, the laws are systematically trampled upon by governments,” she said.

Gnassingbe took 60,88% of votes cast in the March 4 poll, according to official results.

The UFC presidential candidate, Jean-Pierre Fabre, who won 33,93% of votes, has rejected the victory of Gnassingbe, whose father Gnassingbe Eyadema ruled the west African nation for 38 years until his death in 2005.

Fabre claims to have won between 55% and 60% of the ballots.

The main opposition coalition Republican Front for Change (FRAC), which supported Fabre, has staged several protests in Lome to denounce the poll results. Security agents used tear gas to disperse some marches.—Sapa-AFP