TOGO: Disputed vote spawns fears

TOGO: Disputed vote spawns fears

LOMÉ, 6 March 2010 (IRIN) -

/// CORRECTED VERSION. Information previously published in 7th paragraph erroneously listed the number of election observers. The correct figure has been noted. ///

Victory claims by two presidential candidates and continued threats of violence from the opposition are keeping many Togolese indoors two days after the election as they fearfully await official results.

Business at the largest market in the capital, Lomé, has slowed after anxious merchants shuttered their stands. "I am waiting to see how the country will be after results are announced to continue my work in the market," fish vendor, Da Vivi, told IRIN. "Since Friday [5 March] I have not been to the market because I do not know what will happen. My life is more important than money."

Classrooms were emptier than usual the day after elections. "I did not let my six-year-old go to school yesterday [5 March] because I am scared that after results are announced, there will be clashes," said a resident who only gave IRIN her last name, Akakpo.

On the evening of 5 March, residents told IRIN there was a military build up in the capital in anticipation of an announcement from the electoral commission.

The commission's president told IRIN on 5 March that the commission will only release results when all votes have been counted to minimize the risk of violence.

Leading opposition candidate, Jean-Pierre Fabré, told IRIN that his party, the Union of Forces for Change, would instruct its followers to oppose violently any claim of victory from the ruling party, Rally of the Togolese People. "We will launch a popular uprising until victory is ours." Even though counting has proceeded publicly, this has not stemmed the opposition's accusations of fraud. "They [ruling party] want to hide the real results to put forth false ones. And we will not accept it," Fabré told IRIN.

The ruling party has dismissed claims of fraud as "fantasies from the opposition to foment violence" in the country's most closely observed election since Togo started holding multi-party elections in 1993. There were more than 3,000 local and international election observers covering almost 6,000 voting stations.

A newly formed youth group - Citizen Movement for Change - claiming hundreds of members trained in "democracy vigilance" is ready to take to the streets, said one of its leaders, Guillaume Messan. "People of Togo, if you love your country and are ready to die for it, know that the time has come to fight for the liberation of your country," he told IRIN on 6 March.

A political and security professor at the University of Lomé, Sodokin Koffi, told IRIN how the armed forces responds to these threats and any eventual outbreak will determine if lives are lost. "The security forces were trained before the elections and I hope they use conventional methods [to put down violence] that we have seen [used] elsewhere so the worst cannot happen."

Relief workers have been trained in every potential election outcome, Togolese Red Cross director of relief services, Amah Victor Sodogas, told IRIN. "We went through simulation exercises in January and have been on alert. Given the tension, anything can happen and we are ready."

ea/pt/ci
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