Togo president 'wins re-election'

The current president of Togo has won re-election in a disputed vote, electoral authorities say.

The election commission said Faure Gnassingbe, son of a late dictator, had beaten opposition challenger Jean-Pierre Fabre.

He won 1.2 million votes of two million cast, officials said, considerably more than his rival's tally of 692,584.

Mr Fabre had also claimed victory in the election, alleging irregularities in the vote-counting system.

He said that a lack of adequate vote validation meant the count was now "illegal" and that "everything the electoral commission is doing is false".

Street uncertain

Earlier, Jean-Claude Codjo, an opposition member of Togo's electoral agency, walked out of a meeting in protest at what he called a "lack of transparency".

However, the provisional results as declared by the electoral commission showed the incumbent had won a comprehensive victory, widening the gap as fuller results were declared.

The BBC's Caspar Leighton, in Lome, Togo's capital, says that Mr Gnassingbe's win must still be approved by Togo's constitutional court.

The opposition Union Forces for Change (UFC) is sure to challenge them, in court and on the street, our correspondent says, but it is unclear how organised or determined any street protests might be.

The AFP news agency reported that riot police were deployed on the streets of Lome, as the result was announced.

Earlier, police used tear gas to disperse some 200 opposition supporters.

"We do not know what is going to happen. We are all afraid. We do not know how we will wake up tomorrow," one man, named as Jean-Luc, told the agency.

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EU observer fears over Togo poll

European Union observers at Togo's presidential election have raised concerns about a la

The opposition has already voiced its concerns about irregularities.

The Union of Forces for Change (UFC) says it was cheated of victory by President Faure Gnassingbe in 2005.

The UFC's Jean-Pierre Fabre is trying to prevent President Gnassingbe from winning a second term.

'Lynchpin' it comes. It says ballot papers did not have serial numbers,

BBC West Africa correspondent Caspar Leighton says the counting of votes in polling stations is generally believed to have been correct but Mr Gahler says the detail is starting to go at the next level - when results were transmitted to local offices of the national electoral commission.

ck of transparency in the collation of results.

European Parliament mission leader Michael Gahler said it had not been possible to track results after they were read out at polling stations.

We had recommended that they would, on the local election office level, publish the individual results and not only the accumulated results.

"That unfortunately was not done and so we urge for transparency on all levels."

Togo's electoral commission now says a provisional result should be published by Saturday evening.

Many local observers do not feel that the independent electoral commission is truly independent and is subject to pressure from the ruling party.

But the commission's vice-president, Jean Claude Homawoo, who is from the UFC, says the commission does operate freely.

"If the result is in the favour of the opposition or of the government party, we'll take it as it comes."

The Rally of the Togolese People (RPT) party has been in power for 40 years.

Our correspondent says its heritage under the current president's father Gnassingbe Eyadema is profoundly undemocratic.

Mr Gahler thinks that President Gnassinge is, however, interested in the true verdict of the people

But he said structures around him, including the military, may think otherwise.

Our correspondent says that President Gnassingbe is both the product and the lynchpin of a system that is used to the exercise of power.

He says the opposition feels it has been cheated of victory too many times and should win this time.

It says ballot papers did not have serial numbers, only the stubs did, and these could be used to stuff ballot boxes from elsewhere.

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