Opposition challenge Gnassingbé election win

Opposition party leaders in Togo are meeting Sunday, following the declaration of incumbent Faure Gnassingbé as the winner of Thursday’s presidential election with 60.9 per cent of the vote. Runner-up Jean-Pierre Fabre has called for protests and said he does not recognise the result.

Jean-Pierre Fabre challenges the result Reuters

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon has appealed for calm. But the opposition are in angry mood and may declare the formation of an alternative government, correspondent Blamé Ekoué reports.

"I do not recognise the so-called victory of Faure Gnassingbé," Fabre told hundreds of supporters at the headquarters of his Union of Forces for Change (UFC) in Lomé.

"I have never wanted to use violence but, if I am stolen from, I will not give up the fight," he went on. "We are going to stage protests, we are not going to take this lying down."

Fabre claims to have obtained between 55 and 60 per cent of the vote but official results give him just 33.94 per cent. On Sunday he accused the official election authority, Ceni, of falsifying the results and breaking the law.

Police on Saturday arrested ten people, including two aides to another candidate, Messan Agbéyoné Kodjo, claiming that they were distributing leaflets calling for an uprising.

According to UN estimates, between 400 and 500 people were killed in Lomé in 2005 after Gnassingbé was first elected, succeeding his father, Gnassingbé Eyadema, who had ruled for 38 years.