Each presidential candidate promises change at the end of an era

Although there are still a few days to go before Sunday’s landmark presidential election in Togo, many people are behaving as if their favourite candidate had already won. In the capital’s wealthiest neighbourhood on Thursday, dozens of beer-drinking youths danced to the beat of president-elect Faure Gnassingbe’s campaign song. “Faure, il est fort”, boomed the loudspeakers. “Faure, he is strong”. The 39-year-old contender comes with powerful connections. He is a son of late president Gnassinbge Eyadema, whose death in February after almost four decades in power has raised hopes of a new chapter opening in the history of Togo. “He is the only one who understands the youth because he is young like us,” said Etonan Akue, a telecommunications student at the nearby university. “Faure is the only one who can help us.” An elderly shopkeeper observing the festivities firmly agreed. “My children are unemployed,” she said. “They need jobs. We need change. Faure can bring that change.” If there is one word that defines the hopes and wishes of the Togolese people after President Eyadema’s sudden death in office on 5 February, it is change. Almost all Togolese say the nation needs a new leader to break with 38 years of rule by Africa’s longest serving head of state. But they disagree sharply on which candidate should bring about that change. A fair election? The choice before them on Sunday is gentle change, through Faure Gnassingbe, who represents a continuation of the ruling establishment, or radical change, through Emmanuel Bob-Akitani, who is backed by a coalition of six opposition parties. The problem is that most opposition supporters do not believe that the election will be any fairer than those organised in the past by Eyadema. These returned the pro-French strongman to power repeatedly, despite opposition howls of fraud. And parliamentary polls gave his Rally of the Togolese People (RPT) party a virtual monopoly of the seats in parliament. The opposition has called for a postponement of this week's hastily organised presidential election, alarmed by indications that many opposition supporters in southern Togo have been left off the revised electoral roll, while in the pro-Eyadema north the voters' register has been crammed with more names than there are local residents. But its pleas have fallen on deaf ears. Neither the government, nor the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), which chivvied Togo into holding an election after Gnassingbe tried to simply take over the presidency from his late father, have been willing to put back the vote. Gnassingbe may have been forced to step down as head of state after three weeks by international pressure, leaving a close associate of his father to organise the election as interim president, but his victory at the ballot box is doubted by few. Gnassingbe is the official candidate of his father's party, the RPT, and this party controls the army, parliament, the state media and most levels of government. While Gnassingbe may seem an unlikely candidate to radically break with the reign of his father, the gigantic billboards in the city centre featuring his picture promise just that. “Faure: change with stability”, one campaign slogan reads. “With Faure, change is certain,” says another. His own campaign speeches have preached reconciliation and a new dawn of economic prosperity after years of stagnation. Gnassingbe has promised to woo back international donors, such as the European Union, which turned its back on his father in 1993 in protest at human rights abuse and poor governance. Brussels, a major donor to most West African countries, has refused to give Togo a penny since then. Togo is also out of favour with the International Monetary Fund and World Bank.

Faure Gnassingbe

Two main contenders There are four candidates contesting the presidential election, but it is expected to be a straight fight between the amply financed Gnassingbe and 74-year-old Bob-Akitani The latter is standing as a surrogate candidate for veteran opposition leader Gilchrist Olympio who is banned from running because he has been living in exile for several years. The constitution stipulates that presidential candidates must be resident in Togo for at least 12 months prior to the election. Ironically, change has always been the credo of the Togolese opposition, but for lack of a clearly defined election programme the alliance backing Bob-Akitani is simply calling upon its supporters to vote the Eyadema family and its political hangers-on out of office. “Vote for Akitani,” say the tiny opposition campaign posters that are dwarfed by Gnassingbe’s omnipresent billboards and TV ads. All the same, the modest headquarters of Olympio's Union of Forces for Change (UFC) party, the dominant partner in the opposition coalition, is simmering with election fever. Excited young men gather there to discuss the daily marches, many of which end up in skirmishes with Gnassingbe supporters. At least 12 people have been reported killed in confrontations between opposition protesters on one side and the security forces and RPT militants on the other, since Eyadema died on 5 February. Scores more have been injured. Many opposition supporters admit in private that Bob-Akitani is heading for defeat against what they call “the system” - the mafia-like grip on the nation by the Gnassingbe family. But campaign coordinator Jean-Claude Homawoo, who has just returned from 13 years of exile in nearby Cote d’Ivoire, refuses to be defeatist. “All the Togolese want to finish with the system,” he said. “We will take the power. We will be the first to announce our victory to the world - and we will not accept defeat.” Fears of violence As he was talking, a young man with a head wound was brought in, bleeding from an apparent machete injury to the skull. He said he had been attacked by Gnassingbe’s supporters because he was wearing a yellow bandana - yellow being the colour of the opposition. Such clashes reached a bloody climax last Saturday when Olympio, the son of Togo's first president, returned briefly from exile in Paris to address a huge opposition rally in the capital Lome. Hospital sources told IRIN that six people died and 35 people were wounded, some with bullets, in confrontations between opposition and government supporters during the few hours that he was in town. The government admitted that several people were injured in the disturbances, but denied claims that anyone had died. Calm returned to Lome after the weekend violence and on Thursday, with three days to go before the election, most Togolese were going quietly about their daily business. However, some said they felt very apprehensive about what would happen on election day. A young cigarette vendor said his father would not allow him to march for Akitani, because he could get hurt if trouble broke out again. But he did say he was looking forward to voting for his favourite candidate. “I’m going to vote for Akitani because he says there will be change,” the young lad said. “Everybody’s going to have a job, there will be a raise in salaries and the hospitals will be equipped.” Asked what he thought of Gnassingbe’s campaign for change, he shook his head. “His father has done nothing for us, and this is how his son will be,” he said. But as one businessman put it: “Whoever wins the vote, the election will open a new door.”