immediately after his father's term in office. I am confident that Faure
Gnasimbe is intelligent and more than capable of leading Togo and that he may
be  immensely popular, but if I were Faure, I would not have contested for
the  Presidency immediately after my father's term as President. I would
have at  least let one or two Presidential terms pass. But that's just me. I
encourage  Jean-Pierre Fabre and his party to challenge any discrepancies in
the conduct  and results of the poll. It would be instructive for the
international observers  who certify polls to also sit in review of the UFC Party's
challenges and  complaints. This is because the UFC has stated it does not
trust the  constitutional review court. If the International observers do
not review the  complaints and render honest judgement on that, then their
opinions on the  election proper is insignificant and must not be relied on.
They have afterall  expressed reservations about the conduct of the elections.
Just that they do not  see those significant enough to require a do-over.
Well I say let the Togolese  people determine significance. You only render
judgement from your observations.  You want to be trusted to observe
elections in other countries so I would  refrain from qualifying significances.

The following report is culled from BBC News. Allez. Haruna.



Togo opposition vows to challenge election result


The opposition says the result was declared before  being validated

The main opposition party in Togo says it does not  recognise the result of
the election that has returned President Faure  Gnassingbe to power.
The Union of Forces for Change said there was widespread fraud and it
planned to challenge the result in the country's Constitutional Court.
The party said its leader, Jean-Pierre Fabre, had won the poll and  would
form the next government.
Mr Gnassingbe is the son of a late dictator of Togo.
He won 1.2 million votes of two million cast, officials said,  considerably
more than his rival's tally of 692,584, election officials  said.
Calm, so far
But the UFC's director of communications, Eric Dupuy, said the results
from the country's 35 constituencies were read out before being validated  at
the electoral commission and the announcement was illegal.
Mr Dupuy told the BBC the party was challenging the result, even though  it
had no faith in the Constitutional Court as an independent body.

Jean-Pierre Fabre says he won the  election

"We shall fight," Mr Dupuy was quoted by AFP news agency as saying.
Reaction on the street has been limited with a small opposition
demonstration quickly dispersed by tear gas on Saturday, says the BBC's  Caspar
Leighton in the Togolese capital, Lome.
International observers have praised the relatively peaceful nature of  the
election.
But they have also pointed to deficiencies at all stages of the process
without saying whether they were enough to effect the outcome, our
correspondent says.
In 2005, when President Gnassingbe won his first term, there was  massive
violence and hundreds of people were killed.
In the run up to this vote, all parties called for calm. So far the  calm
is just about holding, says our  correspondent.


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