Togo Opposition Decries Presidential Poll 'Violations'

Opposition parties on Monday decried "violations" allegedly committed in Togo's recent presidential elections, preliminary results of which show incumbent President Faure Gnassingbe leading against opposition contender Jean Pierre Fabre.



"Voting was marred by many violations and shortcomings, which have gone unaccounted for," read a Monday statement by Togo's Battle for Political Rotation in 2015, an opposition umbrella group, referring to Saturday's presidential polls.



The bloc said that, due to alleged violations, results of the vote count "would not reflect the people's will."



The bloc said it had documented a number of cases of voters casting ballots without voting cards.



It also said it had documented the "excessive, arbitrary use of proxy voting" during Saturday's polling.



Moreover, it added that thousands of residents of the country's coastal cities could not find their names on voter lists.



The Togolese authorities have yet to respond to the opposition bloc's assertions.



Earlier Monday, Togo's electoral commission said that Gnassingbe had won 61.9 percent of the vote, while Fabre had won 32 percent, based on vote counts from 18 percent of the ballots.



None of the three other candidates exceeded 1 percent of the vote, according to the count, while about 3 percent of the ballots were declared "invalid."



Nearly 3.5 million Togolese were eligible to cast ballots at nearly 4,112 polling centers countrywide.



Gnassingbe, 58, is the candidate of the Union for the Republic Party. He became president on April 24, 2005 after serving as acting president for two months following the death of his father, who had also served as president.



www.aa.com.tr/en - Lome