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Togo opposition rejects Gnassingbe's election victory
Incumbent presidential candidate Faure Gnassingbe speaks at a campaign rally in Tado, Togo, April 13, 2015. PHOTO BY REUTERS/Noel Tadegnon
29/04/2015
LOME (Reuters) - Togo's main opposition coalition on Wednesday rejected the results of a presidential election after incumbent Faure Gnassingbe was declared the winner, reviving fears of the kind of violence that broke out after an earlier election.
The April 25 vote was largely peaceful, but tensions have risen as results trickled in. Hundreds died in the unrest after elections in 2005.
West African regional leaders led by Ghana's President John Dramani Mahama flew to Lome on Tuesday to meet with Gnassingbe and members of the CAP 2015 opposition coalition, but failed to overcome its reservations about the poll.
"CAP 2015 and its candidate Jean-Pierre Fabre categorically reject these fraudulent results that have nothing to do with those compiled from records collected by our representatives in the polling stations," Patrick Lawson-Banku, Fabre's campaign manager, told a news conference.
Togo's election commission had announced late on Tuesday that provisional results showed Gnassingbe won the vote with more than 1.2 million votes, 58.75 percent of the total.
"This is an electoral coup planned long ago," Lawson-Banku said, adding that the opposition will be announcing its own results soon. It also called on its supporters to the streets to protest against what it called a "coup."
Gnassingbe has been president since 2005, when his father died after 38 years in charge of the former French colony. He won re-election in another disputed poll in 2010.
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