TOGO: YOUTH'S PROTEST IN LOME AFTER SON OF PREVIOUS RULER WINS PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION

Record ID: 649150

  • Title: TOGO: YOUTH'S PROTEST IN LOME AFTER SON OF PREVIOUS RULER WINS PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION
  • Date: 26th April 2005
  • Summary: (W3) LOME, TOGO (APRIL 26, 2005) (REUTERS) 1. SLV SOLDIERS OUTSIDE OF ELECTORAL COMMISSION BUILDING IN LOME 0.03 2. CLOSEUP OF SIGN READING 'COMMISSION ELECTORALE NATIONALE' 0.50 3. WIDE OF ELECTORAL COMMISSION 0.09 4. VARIOUS OF WOMAN OFFICIAL SPEAKING (NO TRANSCRIPT) 0.14 5. SLV STREET SCENES, ARMED SOLDIERS IN CONVOY 0.24 5. SLV STREET BARRICADE/ MEN ON MOTORCYCLE 0.27 7. SCU (SOUNDBITE) (Mema) UNIDENTIFIED OPPOSITION SUPPORTER SAYING: "Victory has been stolen from us." 0.32 8. WIDE OF ANOTHER ROADBLOCK, DESERTED STREET 0.35 9. VARIOUS OF WOMEN COMING BACK FROM MARKET, RUSHING TO GET COVER 0.43 10. PAN OF LOME SKYLINE, SMOKE RISING FROM FIRES IN SEVERAL STREETS 0.51 11. WIDE OF BLACK SMOKE RISING 0.54 12. VARIOUS OF LOOTERS RUNNING IN STREETS CARRYING GOODS 1.05 13. VARIOUS OF SECURITY ARRIVING IN PICKUP TRUCK, LOOTERS RUNNING AWAY 1.15 14. HAV POLICE BEATING PROTESTERS WITH STICKS 1.26 15. VARIOUS OF SECURITY TRYING TO STOP LOOTING 1.35 Initials Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved
  • Embargoed: 11th May 2005 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: LOME, TOGO
  • Country: Togo
  • Reuters ID: LVABZMQCF891AFKRO7BA98LU2F55
  • Story Text: Youths protest in Togo after ruler's son Faure
    Gnassingbe wins the West African nation's presidential
    election.




    Angry opposition youths poured onto the streets
    of Togo's capital Lome on Tuesday (April 26), after Faure
    Gnassingbe, son of the country's late authoritarian leader,
    was declared the winner of a presidential poll tainted by
    violence.

    Riot police were deployed as youths hastily erected
    roadblocks in several areas. Elsewhere, scared residents
    scurried for cover down rapidly emptying streets.

    Black smoke rose into the sky from neighbourhoods right
    across the coastal capital as youths burned barricades,
    threw rocks and attacked cars after their candidate lost a
    presidential election.

    Gnassingbe, whose father Gnassingbe Eyadema died in
    February after ruling the West African country for 38
    years, won 60.22 percent of the vote, according to
    provisional results announced by electoral commission chief
    Kissem Tchangai-Walla.

    Opposition activists had vowed to launch violent
    protests if Gnassingbe were declared winner, saying the
    election had been marred by irregularities which
    invalidated the result.

    Pickup trucks with members of the security forces
    roamed the capital's streets. The men were carrying sticks,
    riot shields, assault rifles and one had a rocket-propelled
    grenade launcher.

    Togo's main opposition party called for popular
    resistance on Tuesday after the result.

    Jean-Pierre Fabre, secretary-general of the Union of
    Forces for Change party called on the people to resist
    telling Reuters that the ruling regime must understand that
    they would never accept Faure Gnassingbe as president of
    the republic because neither he or his father could win a
    normal election in Togo.

    All sides in the poll have accused their rivals of
    fraud and intimidation during an election which has been
    marred by weeks of street fighting between rival activists
    and security forces.

    One opposition supporter said, "Victory has been stolen
    from us."
    Main opposition candidate Emmanuel Akitani-Bob,
    representing a six-party coalition, won 38.19 percent of
    Sunday's vote while turnout was around 64 percent, the results
    showed.

    Gnassingbe, a business-minded 39-year-old, stood for
    the ruling Rally of the Togolese People (RPT) party in the
    vote.

    Togo's opposition militants have been cowed by decades
    of authoritarian rule and heavy-handed repression but the
    sudden death of Eyadema -- who led a 1963 coup and declared
    himself president four years later -- stiffened their
    resolve.

    Gnassingbe briefly ruled the country after his father
    died. The army proclaimed him president the same day saying
    they wanted to avoid a dangerous power vacuum.

    He eventually stepped down after a huge international
    outcry and violent street protests in Lome, and called
    elections.

    Gnassingbe says his country needs economic development,
    more justice and freedom. Under his father's reign, Togo --
    once one of the region's most prosperous states -- saw per
    capita income plummet to $270 from over $600 in the 1980s.

    Tchangai-Walla said the results did not include polling
    stations where ballot boxes had been destroyed. Information
    about those incidents would be sent to the constitutional
    court which would then proclaim the final results, she
    said.

    In Lome itself, home to the main opposition
    strongholds, Akitani-Bob won over 76 percent of the vote,
    compared to 23 percent for Gnassingbe, the commission said.
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