JURIST - Paper Chase: Togo election commission declares Gnassingbe winner in disputed poll

[JURIST] Togo's electoral commission Tuesday released provisional figures [Togo government report] indicating that ruling party candidate Faure Gnassingbe won Sunday's disputed presidential election, taking 60.22% of the vote as against 38.19% for opposition coalition leader Emmanuel Bob-Akitani. Allegations of fraud surrounded the poll, which was marred by violence in the capital, Lome, although not to the extent earlier predicted by Togo's Interior Minister last week, who was forced to resign after he said the Sunday vote would prove "suicidal" [JURIST report]. Reuters has more. Togo's constitutional court now has seven days to confirm the voting results. Government and opposition leaders agreed Monday that they would form a government of national unity with both sides particpating in order to avert further violence, regardless of the final result. Togo's political system has been in chaos since the death in February of Gnassingbe's father, Gnassingbe Eyadema, who ruled Togo for almost four decades.

9:18 AM ET - Late reports from Lome say that following the announcement of the election results favoring Faure Gnassingbe, angry pro-opposition youths have poured onto the streets of the capital, setting up barricades and lighting fires that have sent black smoke billowing over sections of the city. Riot police have been sent in to control protestors. Aid workers say that unrest has also spread to centers in the interior of the country. Reuters has more.

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