Angry opposition supporters took to the streets of Togo’s capital, Lome, on Tuesday, erecting burning barricades, throwing rocks and attacking cars after the son of the country’s last dictator was declared winner of the presidential election.
Plumes of black smoke rose across the city and frightened residents sought refuge as gangs of youths set up road-blocks. Pick-up trucks carrying security forces armed with sticks, riot shields and assault rifles roamed the streets.
Togo, a tiny nation on the West African coast, was the scene of Africa’s first military coup, in 1963, and was ruled by the continent’s longest-serving leader, Gnassingbe Eyadema, for 38 years. His son, Faure Gnassingbe, was named president by the army when his father died in February, but he hastily called elections after huge protests and pressure from neighbouring states.
Gnassingbe won 60% of the vote in Sunday’s election, but the opposition said the polls had been marred by irregularities.
”We call on the people to resist,” said Jean-Pierre Fabre, secretary general of the opposition Union of Forces for Change. ”This regime must understand that we will never accept Faure Gnassingbe as president of the republic because neither his father nor him could win a normal election in Togo,” he told Reuters. The main opposition candidate, Bob Akitani, took 38% of the vote, or 841 000 votes against 1,4-million for Gnassingbe.
Togo’s new president was minister of mines in his father’s government. The army installed him as leader hours after his father’s death to prevent a ”vacuum of power”.
The tally of votes does not include those cast at about 700 polling stations which were destroyed during violent clashes on Sunday. While votes were being cast the opposition presidential candidate alleged widespread voting fraud.
”The stuffing of ballot boxes is occurring on a large scale and we haven’t heard of a single polling station where everything is going well,” Akitani said.
Hours before polls closed armed men raided the headquarters of Togo’s opposition and seized computers the opposition planned to use to collate and check the poll results.
On Monday night the Nigerian government sought to broker a deal under which both sides would form a government of national unity.
But opposition leader Gilchrist Olympio, who was barred from standing because he lives in exile, said his party would not serve as a minority partner in any coalition. He said there had been massive fraud in the poll. – Guardian Unlimited Â