Lome: More than three million people are expected to vote on Thursday in Togo to pick a new president, with candidates including incumbent Faure Gnassingbe, in the small west African nation notorious for electoral violence.
This time around, the Independent Electoral Commission (CENI), charged for the first time with organising Presidential Elections in Togo, vowed on Wednesday that it will stage a free and fair poll, devoid of violence.
"We commit ourselves to organising a just, fair and transparent election devoid of violence, to ensure that Togo, our country, finds its place in the comity of modern democracies," CENI president Issifou Taffa Tabiou told a news conference in Lome.
Six opposition candidates are challenging Gnassingbe, 43, who came to power in 2005 after the death of his father, General Gnassingbe Eyadema, whose dictatorial rule lasted 38 years.
One of his toughest challengers is Jean-Pierre Fabre, 58, an economist.
Voting begins at 7:00 am (0700 GMT) and closes at 5:00 pm (1700 GMT).
Campaigns for the poll in the country of 6.5 million people ended on Tuesday midnight peacefully in contrast with the blood-letting violence that happened in 2005.
The violence that followed the disputed vote left up to 800 dead according to various sources, but the United Nations put the toll at 400 to 500 deaths.
In this crucial vote, seen as a test of democratic progress in a nation notorious for electoral violence, it is widely said in Lome that "the palm tree will attempt to uproot the maize."
The maize is the emblem of the Togolese People`s Rally (RPT), in power for four decades, whose flagbearer is 43-year-old Gnassingbe.
The palm tree is the symbol of the Union of Forces of Change (UFC), the main party of the divided opposition, represented by Fabre.
The image of the late Eyadema, absolute grandmaster in Togo from 1967 to 2005, still looms large in Lome, five years after his demise.
Bureau Report
