- Title: TOGO: Togo election commission denounces irregularities
- Date: 23rd October 2007
- Summary: PEOPLE READING NEWSPAPERS NEWSPAPER HEADLINE READING: "CENI CANNOT PROCLAIM RESULTS OF LOME DISTRICT.'' VARIOUS OF NEWSPAPERS
- Embargoed: 7th November 2007 12:00
- Keywords:
- Location: Togo
- Country: Togo
- Topics: Domestic Politics
- Reuters ID: LVA4DTGUQA9F4G6ANYCA0KG52B6O
- Story Text: Opposition supporters have clashed with police after a rally, while the Electoral Commission has delayed results of parliamentary elections over voting irregularities.
Police fired tear gas at protesters in the Togolese capital Lome on Saturday (October 21). The protesters were mostly made up of supporters of the opposition Union of Forces for Change (UFC) party. They claim the UFC won last week's parliamentary elections in Togo.
But Togo's national election commission said on Sunday (October 21) it could not announce the full results because of apparent irregularities during vote-counting in Lome.
The commission said more than half of 751 urns in the oceanside city had been delivered to counting centres without official seals and that results had been recorded from polling booths which did not appear on official lists.
"Given this situation and in an effort to maintain calm, the electoral commission has decided not to announce provisional results for Lome," it said in a statement broadcast on national radio.
The commission said it had handed the matter to the former French colony's constitutional court, the body responsible for confirming the final results and hearing any legal challenges.
"Normally, it's up to them to announce the results before the constitutional court confirms the final results. They did not give the initial results and now they want the constitutional court to proclaim the results. I don't think it's fair,'' said Zeynabou Ali, a secretary working in Lome.
Provisional results from most of Togo announced on Wednesday (October 17) showed the ruling Rally of the Togolese People (RPT) won a majority of at least 49 of 81 parliamentary seats.
The UFC won at least 21 seats, while another opposition party, the Action Committee for Renewal (CAR), won four seats. Electoral officials said voter turnout was 95 percent.
The UFC, which has in the past boycotted legislative polls and which was taking part for the first time in 13 years, has already denounced irregularities and filed a formal complaint.
International election observers have said last Sunday's polls were broadly free, fair and transparent.
''What is happening in Togo today is intolerable. People always want to cheat. It is a shame. I accuse all of them of responsibility for the country's difficulties and divisions, the north supporting the RPT and the south supporting the UFC. It is too bad. They must manage to give us the final results,'' said Kossi Assogba, who drives a motorcycle taxi, also in Lome.
Togolese authorities hope the election will lead to a full resumption of international aid to the country, which has suffered decades of authoritarian rule and periods of bloody unrest since independence in 1960.
But the current controversy over the results may dash those hopes.
''Elections in Togo are not worth it. We are tired. I will not vote anymore. Every election we have problems and the latest hitch is that the CENI is unable to publish the results. I'm calling on all the political parties represented at the CENI to find an agreement and provide us with the results of our votes,'' said Jean Afoudji, a resident of Lome.
The European Union, once Togo's biggest donor, froze most aid to the country in 1993, citing the poor democratic record of then President Gnassingbe Eyadema, an archetypal African "Big Man" who ruled Togo for four decades. - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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