- Title: TOGO: MILITARY CAST VOTES AHEAD OF GENERAL ELECTION
- Date: 23rd April 2005
- Summary: (BN12) LOME, TOGO (APRIL 21, 2005) (REUTERS) 1. MV SOLDIER PUTTING HIS VOTE IN BALLOT BOX IN SCHOOL USED AS POLLING STATION; OFFICIAL TAKING ELECTION CARD 0.09 2. SCU SOLDIER MARKING BALLOT PAPER BEHIND SCREEN; SOLDIER PUTTING BALLOT INTO BALLOT BOX, WALKING AWAY; UNMARKED BALLOT PAPERS STACKED UP (4 SHOTS) 0.25 3. SLV /SCU/MV SOLDIERS QUEUEING OUTSIDE SCHOOLHOUSE TO VOTE 0.38 4. SLV STREET SCENE, CARS AND MOPEDS DRIVING DOWN STREET; MONUMENT COVERED IN ELECTION POSTERS FOR CANDIDATES; BILLBOARD POSTER FOR FAURE GNASSINGBE 5. POSTER FOR AKAPOVI EMMANUEL AKITANI-BOB ON TELEPHONE BOX 1.01 Initials Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved
- Embargoed: 8th May 2005 13:00
- Keywords:
- Location: LOME, TOGO
- Country: Togo
- Reuters ID: LVAABBKLVR0IZN5LD8UHWV1OLU2T
- Story Text: Togo military cast votes ahead of general election
on Sunday.
Togo's military started voting on Thursday (April
21, 2005) in presidential elections ahead of the general public
who will to pick a successor to former ruler Gnassingbe
Eyadema on Sunday (April 24, 2005).
Gnassingbe Eyadema's death after 38 years in power
plunged the West African nation into chaos and triggered
bloody street battles between rival activists. By voting on
Thursday members of the security forces will be free to
work on election day.
Eyadema's 39-year-old son Faure Gnassingbe is favourite
to win. The army named him president upon his father's
death on February 5, in violation of the constitution, but
he was forced to step down and hold elections after an
international outcry.
His chief rival is 74-year-old Emmanuel Akitani-Bob,
who has been chosen by six opposition parties as their sole
candidate.
Eyadema's long-standing opponent, Gilchrist Olympio, is
barred from running as he has lived in exile since an
assassination attempt in 1992. There are two other minor
candidates.
Analysts say Gnassingbe seems almost certain to win in
the former French colony of 5.5 million people which his
father ruled as an archetypal strongman, becoming the
continent's longest-serving leader and brooking little
opposition.
Gnassingbe, who has a master's degree in business
administration from the United States and a reputation for
being reserved and moderate, works in his father's
residence, known as Lome II. He travels aboard a
presidential jet and counts several ministers and top
administration officials among his electoral aides.
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