Posted on 04/21/2005 11:55:23 PM PDT by HAL9000
[ This report does not necessarily reflect the views of the United Nations]LOME, 22 Apr 2005 (IRIN) - The holding of presidential elections in Togo on Sunday is in doubt following a surprise call by the interior minister for the controversial poll to be suspended to prevent the West African country from degenerating into bloody conflict.
Interior Minister Francois Boko told a late night press conference on Thursday that Togo was heading for a “suicidal electoral process” given the high levels of violence which have marked the campaign so far.
Boko, who is in charge of internal security, told journalists and diplomats from France, Germany and the European Union that the election should be suspended. He said an opposition leader should be appointed prime minister of a transitional government which should rule the country for one to two years while a new constitution was drawn up.
“It is essential that the President of the Republic takes into account the very real risks which are visible of the horizon by ending this suicidal electoral process,” Boko said.
“We have reliable information that there is a very real risk of a slide into bloodshed as a result of this poll, whose outcome is uncertain,” he added
It was not clear whether Boko was speaking with the agreement of interim president Abass Bonfoh, the security forces or other members of the government.
Sunday’s election was due to pit Faure Gnassingbe, the son of Togo’s late president Gnassingbe Eyadema, against Emmanuel Bob-Akitani, who standing on behalf of an alliance of six opposition parties which are determined to end 38 years of strong-arm rule by the Eyadema family.
Exiled opposition leader Gilchrist Olympio told the BBC from Accra in neighbouring Ghana that opposition leaders, who have been calling for several weeks for Sunday’s poll to be postponed, were consulting among themselves about how to react.
“We are talking among ourselves, but we know the government has been under tremendous pressure from both inside and outside,” Olympio said.
He warned that young opposition supporters were impatient for change and were frustrated by what they saw as government attempts to rig the poll in favour of Gnassingbe, who briefly took power with the backing of the army after his father died on 5 February.
“All the conditions are there for there to be a very serious clash inside the country,” Olympio said.
Olympio was personally barred from contesting the presidential election because he has lived for several years in exile in France. Bob-Akitani, the deputy leader of his Union of Forces for Change (UFC) party, was standing as a surrogate candidate on his behalf.
Asked whether the latent conflict in Togo could develop into a civil war, Olympio said: “Yes, there is a strong possibility.”
Olympio, the son of Togo’s first president, Sylvanus Olympio, said he had received unconfirmed reports suggesting that the police and army, who cast their ballots early on Thursday, had voted in a majority for Bob-Akitani and that this may have rattled the interior minister.
The commanders of the security forces are predominantly from the Eyadema family’s Kabiye ethnic group from northern Togo. It had been widely assumed until now that the police and army supported the present government, which served under Eyadema, and that they favoured the succession of Gnassingbe.
Togo.
As we can see on the map, Togo is south of Burkina Faso and it's southern coastline is on the Bight of Benin. Best of all, though, it's next door to Kofi's home country of Ghana. It is a former French colony, somewhat smaller than the state of West Virginia with a population of roughly 5.5 million, give or take some AIDS deaths.
Religions:
Indigenous beliefs 51%, Christian 29%, Muslim 20%.
Well what do you know. The Religion of PeaceTM is involved. What a surprise.
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