TOGO: Ruling party and opposition supporters react to results of landmark parliamentary elections

Togo's ruling Rally of the Togolese People party have won a majority of at least 49 of 81 parliamentary seats in the West African country's legislative elections, electoral authorities said. According to official provisional results from Sunday's polls (October 14), the opposition Union of Forces for Change (UFC) party won at least 21 seats, while another opposition party, the Action Committee for Renewal (CAR), obtained four seats. ''I'm really touched and very happy. I knew that the RPT would win. I was sure of it, even though some people say the RPT has stolen it. Today, we the RPT people, we tell you that Togo is not only the south, it's not Lome. The RPT is from Lome to Cinkasse,'' said Adji Akonaro, a RPT supporter. Electoral officials said voter turnout was 95 percent, reflecting popular enthusiasm in the October 14 polls in which opposition parties participated for the first time in 13 years. They had boycotted the last parliamentary elections in 2002 and dispute the results of this one. ''The results had been announced and we don't agree. We wanted to march peacefully and we have been stopped from doing so. That is what shames this regime; pretending something is, when it is not. Reality must come back. We won the elections, we must re-examine the bulletins that were put in the ballot boxes,'' said Patrick Lawson of the opposition UFC. European and African election observers have praised Sunday's vote, in which more than 2,000 candidates from over 30 parties competed, as generally free and fair and a positive step for Togo's still fragile democracy. Togolese authorities hope the successful elections will lead to a full resumption of international aid to their country. 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. He died in February 2005. The army named his son, Faure Gnassingbe, as president, violating the constitution and provoking violent protests in which hundreds of opposition supporters were killed by the security forces. Tens of thousands more fled the country. After winning flawed and violent 2005 elections, Gnassingbe opened a dialogue with opposition parties and formed a national unity government, starting a democratic process that led to Sunday's multi-party elections.

ITN Source | October 20, 2007

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