Presidential election campaign kicks off without Olympio

Togo launched into a two-week campaign for presidential elections on Friday, but with Gilchrist Olympio, the main opposition candidate, barred from standing, President Gnassingbe Eyadema looked well placed to extend his 36-year role for a further five years. Eyadema nevertheless faces six opposition candidates in the June 1 ballot, including Emmanuel Bob-Kitani, the vice-president of Olympio's Union for the Forces of Change (UFC)party. He is is standing with Olympio's blessing as a legal proxy for Olympio himself. Bob-Katani, a retired engineer and civil servant, is already in his seventies and is not generally seen as an inspiring figure. However, he has been playing the Olympio card to try and win votes. "I am not Gilchrist, but together we can build Togo," he said. Olympio is the son of Sylvanus Olympio, Togo's first president who was assassinated in 1963. However, he fell out with Eyadema many years ago and his lived in exile in Ghana and France since 1992. Olympio was allowed to run in the previous presidential election in 1998, when he officially came second with 34 percent of the vote. Eyadema, who siezed power in a 1967 coup, was declared victor with 52 percent. Eyadema supporters were the most visible on the streets of the capital Lome on day one of the campaign. They chanted the president's name and plastered posters on the walls of the main streets proclaiming "Eyadema, the wise and experienced candidate". Others urged: "Vote for Eyadema so that Togo becomes the Switzerland of Africa once more." This was a reference to the peace and stability which Eyadema claims to have brought this former French colony of five million people during nearly four decades of conservative rule. Now 67, he shares the same birthday as his arch-rival Olympio, whose name will not appear on the ballot papers. The electoral commission rejected Olympio's candidature, saying that he failed to submit a certificate showing that he paid his taxes and a proper certificate of residence. By mid-day on Friday, supporters of all seven candidates could seen parading round the streets of Lomeon foot, and in motorcades, wearing T-shirts with their candidate's portrait and waving placards. Eyadema has created a special 5,000-strong Presidential Election Security Force (FOSEP) to maintain security and keep order during the electoral period. It comprises members of the national police, para-military gendarmerie and municipal constabularies. Doubts about the credibility of the electoral process have dissuaded the European Union and the Senegal-based human rights organisation RADDHO from sending observers to the poll. The EU issued a statement earlier this month demanding that the Togolese authorities end the "arbitrary detention of opposition supporters." However French ambassador Jean-Francois Valette, said on Thursday that a group of French parliamentarians would come to monitor the vote. Togo's foreign ministry said observers had also been invited from several African countries, the African Union and the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS). The economy of Togo, which gained independence in 1960, depends mainly on coffee, cocoa, forestry and fishing. The country ranks 141st on the 2002 human development index of the United Nations, with a a per capita income of US $1,442.