Police shoot dead opposition protestor

One man was killed and several were injured as opposition protestors clashed with police in the capital Lome and several towns in the interior of Togo on Friday, an alliance of the country's main opposition parties said on Friday. Police opened fire on demonstrators with automatic weapons in the town of Tabligbo, 60 km north of Lome, killing one man and injuring several others, the opposition alliance said in a statement. It also reported that protestors were hurt in clashes with the security forces in Kpalime and Keve on the Ghanaian frontier. In Lome, eyewitnesses said police used tear gas and fragmentation grenades to try and disperse several thousand opposition protestors who marched on the town hall to demand voting cards so they could take part in a landmark presidential election due on 24 April. Voter registration was due to have ended on Tuesday, but the government, which faces opposition charges that it is planning to rig the election, has pledged to make voting cards available up to the last minute so that nobody will be left out. However, it has rejected opposition demands for the election to be postponed so that a free and fair election can be properly organised under international supervision. The European Union has declined to send observers to monitor the poll and the United States is still mulling whether or not to do so. The six main opposition parties have united behind a single candidate to challenge the son and heir apparent of the late president Gnassingbe Eyadema. He died in February after ruling this small West African country with an iron hand for 38 years. The formerly fragmented opposition is demanding a new era of freedom and change. The election is likely to be straight fight between Faure Gnassingbe, the 39-year-old son of Eyadema, and Emmanuel Bob-Akitani, the candidate of the opposition alliance. Two other minor candidates are only expected to attract a handful of votes. However, the opposition parties have accused the authorities of withholding voting cards in opposition bastions and of playing havoc with the electoral roll ahead of the hastily arranged presidential election, which is just over two weeks away. Interior Minister Akila-Esso Boko, said two big hand-outs of cards were being organised in Lome this weekend “for people who were unable to put their names on the electoral roll and pick up cards” before the initial deadline for registration expired. “In any case voting cards will be distributed up to the eve of the election,” he said at a meeting with party leaders on Thursday. The interior minister said that during the initial 10-day period allocated to update the electoral roll, 450,000 new voters had been registered and 100,000 names had been struck off. A further two million registered voters had been handed new cards, he added. Interim President Abass Bonfoh declared campaigning officially open in a speech urging “each one of us to avoid feeding tension and upsetting our climate of peace and security.” Gnassingbe, who briefly seized power with the help of the army after his father’s sudden demise on 5 February is standing as the candidate of the ruling Rally of the Togolese People (RPT), which controls the government and virtually all the seats in parliament. He launched his election campaign on Friday in the Eyadema family's traditional stronghold in northern Togo.