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Police Block Togo Opposition March

   Scott Stearns | Dakar 09 March 2010
   Supporters of opposition leader Jean-Pierre Fabre demonstrate in Lome,
   Togo  after they took to the streets protest the results in Thursday's
   presidential  ballot in which President Faure was declared a winner, 7
   Mar 2010

Photo: AP

   Supporters of opposition leader Jean-Pierre Fabre demonstrate in Lome,
   Togo  after they took to the streets protest the results in Thursday's
   presidential  ballot  in  which  President  Gnassingbe  was declared a
   winner, 07 Mar 2010

   Riot  police  Tuesday  blocked  Togo's  main opposition candidate from
   leading  a  march  to  protest  results  from last week's presidential
   election.   Those  results  indicate  that  Togo's  president  has won
   re-election.
   Riot police prevented opposition leader Jean-Pierre Fabre from meeting
   up  with  more  than 1,000 supporters for a planned protest of results
   that indicate President Faure Gnassingbe won last Thursday's vote.
   Security  forces  set  up  roadblocks  in  a  neighborhood that is the
   headquarters  of  Fabre's  Union  of  Forces  for  Change party, after
   banning Tuesday's march.
   Riot  police  dispersed  protesters with tear gas Sunday following the
   electoral  commission's  declaration  that  President  Gnassingbe  won
   slightly  more than 60 percent of the vote.  The commission says Fabre
   won  more  than one-third of the vote and former Prime Minister Yawovi
   Agboyibo finished third with less than three percent of ballots cast.
   The  opposition has eight days to convince Togo's constitutional court
   that  President Gnassingbe's re-election was illegal.  Fabre claims to
   have  won  more  than 70 percent of the vote, despite what he says was
   electoral  fraud  that included stuffed ballot boxes and the inflation
   of ruling-party vote totals reported to the electoral commission.
   Regional  electoral  observers believe the voting itself was fair, but
   they  are  concerned  about  the reliability of totals reported to the
   electoral  commission  after a breakdown in the satellite system meant
   to transmit returns from polling stations.
   The  hope  now  is  resolving  this  dispute peacefully to prevent the
   violence that followed Togo's 2005 vote, which the United Nations says
   killed  more than 400 people and sent thousands of refugees into Ghana
   and Benin.
   President Gnassingbe won that vote, following the death of his father,
   Gnassignbe Eyadema, who ruled Togo for more than 38 years.
   United  Nations  Secretary-General  Ban  Ki-moon  is  urging political
   leaders and their supporters to remain calm and exercise restraint. In
   a  written  statement,  he  asked everyone to channel their complaints
   through  the judiciary and urged that those complaints be treated in a
   fair and transparent manner.

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