Three Killed, Amid Claims of Fraud in Tense Togo Election

25/04/2005| IslamWeb

At least three people were killed and 20 others injured in Togo as voting ended in tense presidential elections marred by claims of massive fraud.

Late on Sunday tensions ran high in areas of the tiny western African state's capital, where opposition supporters wielding machettes and clubs had erected barricades to protest alleged irregularities. Witnesses also said that police opened fire in four districts.

The violence came after voters in Togo turned out in force Sunday to elect a successor to Gnassingbe Eyadema, hardline ruler for 38 years, with both opposition and the ruling parties trading accusations of "massive fraud".

Voters had a choice essentially between Faure Gnassingbe, the 39-year-old son of the late leader, and his main challenger Emmanuel Akitani Bob, 74, who represents a radical opposition coalition led by Gilchrist Olympio's Union of Forces for Change (UFC).

A Western diplomat told AFP he "saw three bodies in the district between John Paul II boulevard and the airport near the Hedzranawoe primary school".

"They were the bodies of young men," he added.

Tensions rose as both sides accused each other of rigging the ballot boxes, after a campaign marked by violence.

The opposition claimed the presidential polls had been rigged in favour of the late leader's son.

"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," main opposition contender Akitani Bob told AFP, charging that forged votes were cast and that ink used to mark voters' fingers was not indelible.

Opposition coordinator Yawovi Agboyibo also denounced "serious and deliberate fraud" and many other anomalies.

"This throws the validity of the election into doubt," he said.

The ruling Rally of the Togolese People (RPT) hit back, accusing opposition supporters of attacks and disrupting polling stations.

"Gangs of youths chased our delegates in certain voting stations. They took over the polling stations and stuffed the ballot boxes," Dama Dramani, the party's secretary general told a news conference.

He said the polls had been "tarnished by violence perpetrated by these youths of the opposition".

"Several of our militants were injured, including some seriously, the houses of party officials were looted and cars set on fire," he said.

The special envoy of regional grouping the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), which stepped in to force new elections after Eyadema's death and a failed attempt to install his son in power, said it was "too soon" for its monitors to rule whether there had been irregularities.

"I am satisfied that the presidential elections were held," the envoy Boukar Mai Manga told a news conference. "At the start of our mission no-one would have believed there would be vote on April 24."

Late on Sunday witnesses at the site of the three deaths said the youths who had been killed had fought off attempts by unidentified men to take away the ballot boxes from the school.

At a hospital in Lome's opposition stronghold of Be, a doctor said 13 people were injured in the violence. Four of them were seriously hurt and taken to another hospital.

The injured told AFP they had been wounded by army gunfire as troops tried to carry away ballot boxes from some polling stations.

These reports could not immediately be confirmed by other sources.

A police officer told AFP that troops fired shots in four capital districts, including Be.

Opposition protesters had thrown up barricades on several Lome avenues in the late afternoon.

Eyadema's death triggered a constitutional crisis here, as a short-lived bid to install Faure Gnassingbe as president without a popular vote collapsed under pressure from influential African leaders.

Main opposition figure Gilchrist Olympio, the son of Togo's assassinated first president, lives in exile in Paris and was barred from standing in the election by a clause in the constitution inserted to exclude non-residents from office.

The other opposition candidate who stood, given little chance of winning, was Olympio's cousin, Harry Olympio.

On Saturday the third opposition candidate, businessman Nicolas Lawson, dropped out of the race, complaining of irregularities in the election.

Gnassingbe, the election favourite, was in a relaxed mood speaking to journalists Sunday after casting his ballot at an army base in central Lome.

"We have already won the first battle -- the election is taking place at the time specified by the constitution," he said, in reference to opposition bids to have the vote delayed to give them more time to campaign.

PHOTO CAPTION

A Togolese opposition supporter walks in front of a roadblock of burning tires on election day in the capital of Lome April 24, 2005. (Reuters)