TOGO: Togolese vote in parliamentary elections, leaders hope process will convince foreign donors the country has multi-party democratic rule

Opposition parties, who boycotted the last legislative polls in 2002, were participating in the list of more than 2,000 candidates from 31 parties who are vying to fill 81 seats in the national parliament. Lines of voters formed outside polling stations across the Gulf of Guinea state, a narrow sliver of territory wedged between Ghana and Benin. A former French colony, it was also once ruled by Germany between 1894 and 1914. Voters hoped that there would be no repeat of violence that marred the 2005 poll that elected Faure Gnassingbe as president following the sudden death of his father, Gnassingbe Eyadema, an archetypal African "Big Man" who ruled Togo for four decades. Togolese authorities hope Sunday's polls will be free and fair and lead to a full resumption of international aid to their country, which has suffered decades of authoritarian rule and periods of bloody unrest since independence in 1960. The European Union, once Togo's biggest donor, froze most aid to the country in 1993, citing the poor democratic record of then president Eyadema, who 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 the flawed 2005 elections, Gnassingbe opened a dialogue with opposition parties and formed a national unity government, starting a democratic process foreign donors hope will be sealed by Sunday's multi-party elections.

ITN Source | October 14, 2007

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