Afronline – The Voice Of Africa

LOME – Voting in Togo’s presidential election began on Thursday despite fears of violence and opposition allegations President Faure Gnassingbe may rig the outcome, Reuters reports. Togo’s election campaign culminated in a major show of strength at rallies in the capital, Lomé, ahead of the presidential poll, AllAfrica says in an article published on the website.

Fasozine reports from Ouagadougou that supporters of the two main favourites, President Faure Gnassingbé of the Rassemblement du Peuple Togolais (RPT) and Jean-Pierre Fabre of l’Union des forces du Changement (UFC), were among those who took to the streets.

“Faure kpoyéla,” meaning, in Mina, one of the local languages, that there is nobody other than the incumbent president, was the fashionable slogan among his supporters, whose endless caravan through the streets included a dance band. When the throng met the tide of yellow which constituted the supporters of the UFC, each side claimed victory and heckled one another, all in good spirit and without animosity.

For Arzouma Sibiti, who carried yellow posters bearing the image of Jean-Pierre Fabre, his candidate is the Barack Obama of Togo who will transform the ambitions of the UFC into reality.

In the run-up to the voting, efforts were made to prevent a repeat of the 2005 post-election violence, in which many innocent lives were lost.

Gnassingbé publicly condemned any kind of campaigning that encourages violence. As a precautionary measure, a 6,000-man force of agencts specially trained for presidential elections has been deployed across the country.

Opposition parties and a number of observers have already raised concerns over early voting by military personnel on Monday. While the government argues that this was necessary to enable the military to maintain peace and order on the election day, the opposition believes this is a fraudulent mechanism that has been used by the government in the past to inflate results.

Jean-Pierre Fabre, the main challenger from the Union of Forces for Change (UFC) party, said to Reuters that Togolese were ready for change. “I have heard the distress calls, the unanimous desire for change that is coming from the Togolese people.

“There is no doubt that this desire for change will translate into votes. That is why I am warning all those who may be tempted to meddle with the vote of the Togolese,” he added.

“We must all keep in mind that our chosen candidate may or may not be the one chosen by the majority,” the head of Togo’s electoral commission Taffa Taboin said to Reuters.

“We are committed to an election that is just, fair, transparent and without violence that will allow Togo to take its place among modern democracies,” he added.

The agency also underlines that Gnassingbe, the candidate of the ruling Togolese People’s Rally (RPT), took power in 2005 after the death of his father Gnassingbe Eyadema, who ruled as a dictator for 38 years.

Yet parliamentary elections two years later were peaceful, raising hopes of an end to Togo’s long history of political violence and leading to the restoration of foreign aid.

“The vote will provide the opportunity for Togo to build on the positive reaction from 2007. But there is concern, which is not necessarily misguided, given the strained socio-political context of presidential elections in the past,” Kissy Agyeman-Togobo of IHS Global Insight said in a research note.

Continue reading on AllAfrica.com

More information on  af.reuters.com

By Staff - Afronline.org

Picture by AP