Police use teargas to disperse protestors after disputed election

Incumbent president Faure Gnassingbe (right) was in the lead Saturday based on partial results from Togo's tense presidential vote. Supporters of rival Jean-Pierre Fabre took to the streets of the capital Lomé and were dispersed by police.

By Luke SHRAGO (video)
News Wires (text)

AFP - Police used teargas Saturday to break up an opposition protest in Togo led by presidential candidate Jean-Pierre Fabre who has claimed victory in a disputed election, police and witnesses said.

Several hundred youths and Fabre were dispersed with teargas in the centre of the capital Lome, they said.

The commander of 6,000-strong election security forces, Colonel Damehane Yark, told AFP that teargas had been used.

Togo's electoral agency CENI has promised to release the result of the poll, in which President Faure Gnassingbe and Faure were the main candidates, on Saturday. Both men claim victory.

A supporter of Fabre's UFC party, French-Togolese Kofi Yamgnane, who was a former member of the French government, took part in the protest, Yark said.

Tension rose Saturday in Lome, as the nation awaited the release of the final results of Thursday poll.

The partial results of the elections, announced earlier Saturday by CENI, said Gnassingbe, son of Gnassingbe Eyadema, who led Togo for 38 years, was in the lead.

Some 3.2 million Togolese were eligible to vote in Thursday's election, seen as a key test of the country's resolve to turn a page on electoral bloodletting.