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IRIN Web Special on the Togo elections
I N T R O D U C T I O N - Continued
The six other opposition candidates who were allowed to go forward have meanwhile been given a hard time. Several had their party political broadcasts censored by the government and some of their rallies have been disrupted by pro-Eyadema activists.
The opposition has also expressed misgivings about the new voters' roll. It contains over three million names - a million more than at the last presidential election five years ago.There are doubts as to how many of these correspond to real people.
The civic rights group CONEL has reported many cases of names being ommited and or appearing twice on the same list. It has also complained that many people in pro-opposition areas have not been issued with voter cards.
Opposition leaders believe that Eyadema rigged the 1998 ballot in order to secure victory over Olympio, who on that occasion was allowed to stand against him. Official results showed that Eyadema won with 52 percent of the vote, while Olympio took second place with 34 percent.
Some opposition politicians have hinted that if Eyadema rigs the poll this time, the army should intervene.
Maurice Dahuku Pere, an opposition presidential candidate who quit Eyadema's RPT last year after failing an attempt to push through internal reforms, has openly called on the military establishment to defend "the people's vote." And an underground opposition group called New Popular Dynamic issued a statement earlier this month urging the army "not to miss this historic rendez vous."
Most of the army's senior officers are, like Eyadema, from the north of Togo. But diplomatic sources said the president can no longer take their loyalty for granted. He has survived several assassination attempts and military rebellions in the past and has chosen to make few public appearances during this year's election campaign
Eyadema's campaign posters urge people to vote for him so that Togo will remain "the Switzerland of Africa," a reference to nearly four decades of political stability under his rule.
"Vote Eyadema, for he has brought peace and stability to this nation" , Fambare Natchaba, a member of the RPT's politburo and the head of Togo's parliament, told a campaign rally in the capital. "We don't want to become like Cote d'Ivoire, Liberia, Central African Republic or the Democratic Republic of Congo."
But govermnment critics say this is precisely the trap which Togo may fall into unless Eyadema agrees to step down gracefully instead of waiting to be overthrown.
They point out that Cote d'Ivoire was also held up as a beacon of stability in West Africa during the 33-year rule of President Felix Houphouet Boigny. They also stress that unlike Eyadema, the Ivorian leader brought his people economic prosperity. Even so, Cote d'Ivoire still fell apart after the man who had held it together since independence disappeared from the scene, leaving no obvious successor.
In Togo the only opposition leader of any stature is Olympio, the son of the country's first president, Syvlanus Olympio, who was assassinated in 1963. Diplomats say that although he has lived in exile in Ghana and France for the past 10 years, he commands widespread support in the south of the country.
Although Olympio, 67, has been barred from the election, Emmanuel Bob-Akitani, the number two figure in his UFC party is standing as a proxy candidate for him and may still pull in a sizeable vote.
On May 26 Leopold Gnininvi, one of the five other opposition candidates, dropped out of the race and threw his support behind Bob-Akitani, saying he had emerged as the most popular challenger to Eyadema and the opposition should unite behind him.
Eyadema's supporters have tried to discredit the other presidential candidates by accusing them of being self-seeking former collaborators with his regime, whose protests have a hollow ring. "During the day they say they are opponents, but at night they come to Lome Two (the presidential palace) to get money," one senior RPT official told IRIN.
However, there is a consensus among all opposition parties in this narrow strip of land wedged between Benin and Ghana, that Eyadema personally is the greatest obstacle to the changes that are needed to guarantee Togo's future.
"The Togolese are chained to a 40-year dictatorial regime which thrives on fear and poverty," said Cornelius Aidam, spokesman of the Pan-African Patriotic Convergence (CPP) party. Its presidential candidate is Edem Kodjo, a former finance minister under Eyadema, who went on to become Secretary General of the Organisation of African Unity.
Gnininvi, an expert in solar energy, said that under the present regime Togo was actually going backwards. "They say the country has been stable, but they don't understand that stability means stagnation and stagnation means regression," he told IRIN.
The economy relies mainly on subsistence farming, fishing and exports of phosphates and cotton. According to the United Nations 2002 Development Report , Togo has a gross domestic product of US $1,442 per capita.
Crucially the country has been starved of foreign aid since 1993 when the EU, which had been its largest donor, turned off the tap. Brussels suspended aid because of concerns about lack of democracy, poor standards of governance and lack of respect for human rights. Critics now speak of an "asphyxiated economy" dominated by an overweight but under-funded public sector.
"What do you want me to tell you about the Togolese economy? The Togolese live in a state of constant debt," the philosophy professor told IRIN
So what is the way out? "If all fails, God will send a miracle from above," the philosophy professor commented.
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