Amid scattered violence, Togolese voted to elect a new president they hope will bring democracy after decades of tyranny and restore order following months of turmoil caused by the death of Africa's longest-serving ruler.
Leading candidate Faure Gnassingbe, the son of late dictator Gnassingbe Eyadema, reiterated his vows to restore security, unite the divided country and install a government of national unity if elected.
His rivals in Sunday's election were Harry Olympio and opposition frontrunner Bob Akitani, who went into hiding after unidentified men stormed his office, tied up three staff members at gunpoint and stole computers, according to his spokesperson and lawyer, Homawoo Atsu.
After Eyadema died on February 5 of a heart attack, the army named Gnassingbe president in what many saw as a military coup.
International pressure forced Gnassingbe to step down and promise elections amid opposition protests that descended into deadly violence. More violence shadowed the campaign and there were fears it could erupt again, whatever the outcome of the vote.
Prior to Sunday's ballot, the United States State Department expressed "deep concern," and the United Nations ordered non-essential staff out. UN Secretary General Kofi Annan appealed "once again for calm" as results were counted, his spokesperson said.
The succession chaos hit an impoverished country of five million, who are battered and divided after 38 years of Eyadema's oppressive rule.
"We need a change in mentality here," Christian Yenkey, a 50-year-old doctor, said as he waited to cast his ballot at a secondary school in the capital, Lome.
"I always voted before and never saw anything change. I'm hopeful that this election will be different."
Despite morning downpours and several isolated demonstrations in Lome's opposition neighbourhood, officials said voter turnout appeared higher than in past elections.
Polling stations closed on time at 6pm. (6pm GMT). About 2,2-million people were registered to vote at 5 300 stations across the country. Counting was to start immediately, but election officials said it could take several days for results to be announced.
Protesters in Be, Lome's main opposition neighbourhood, set a car ablaze after claiming the owner possessed a stolen ballot box. The driver escaped unharmed.
Riot police and firefighters arrived to restore order and douse the burning, overturned car, though no clashes broke out. Several blocks away, opposition supporters protested in front of a polling station, claiming their names were excluded from the voter list.
They claimed government loyalists were stuffing the station's ballot box with votes for Gnassingbe.
"If we catch these men committing fraud, we're gonna kill them," said Kossi Eddoh (22) standing amid a crowd of screaming young people.
Opposition coalition spokesperson Yawovi Agboyibo said masked men had also stormed several polling stations outside Lome, firing in the air and carting away ballot boxes. Government officials could not immediately be reached to comment.
Gnassingbe's spokesperson Pascal Bodjona denied Faure's political party was behind the theft of ballot boxes or harassment at polls.
"Our party condemns all violence," he said.
"These accusations are an opposition plot for support."
Bodjona said opposition members attacked and severely beat Gnassingbe's campaign manager, Richard Attipoe, as he voted at a polling station outside Lome.
In the afternoon, opposition militants wielding machetes set up roadblocks with burning tires in at least one town just outside of Lome and in a district of the capital, and hurled stones at passing cars.
Other parts of the capital were calm. Trucks with policemen and soldiers idled along the streets. Many shops across the city were shuttered, though the streets remained busy with pedestrian traffic.
A Western diplomat, speaking on condition of anonymity, said he saw the bodies of three young men who had been shot in a neighbourhood near the airport. It was not known who killed them or why.
In Berlin, the German government said Togo's former Interior Minister Francois Boko had sought refuge at its embassy in Lome.
Boko was fired on Friday after calling for the ballot to be cancelled to avert bloodshed.
After nearly four decades of Eyadema's mismanagement and neglect, the average Togolese income is $270 a year, down from $600 in the 1980s. Unemployment affects nearly every household.
Gnassingbe campaigned on a message of unity and change, hoping to escape the negative image of his father. Yet many believe he's merely a cog in Eyadema's military-backed political machine.
"I am committed to forming a government open to all members of Togo's political parties," Gnassingbe said at Sunday's press conference.
"I think right now we badly need peace and security to be established in our country. More justice, more freedom, that's what I'll do. Togo is on the path of democracy."
Gnassingbe, a former businessman named communications minister by his father, claimed he'd never had serious political ambitions.
"I just wanted to do politics for 10 years and go back into business," he said, sitting in a gold-rimmed chair in one of his family's opulent Lome homes.
"My mindset is that I won't enjoy it, but I'm sure this period won't last. After two or three years Togo will be peaceful, and then I'll enjoy it."
Olympio told reporters on Saturday that Gnassingbe's ruling party was distributing weapons to supporters. He called for restraint from the opposition, as has Akitani.
Akitani heads the party of Gilchrist Olympio, the son of Togo's first democratically elected leader, who was assassinated in a 1963 coup led by Eyadema. Eyadema had changed the Constitution to bar Gilchrist Olympio from running for president. - Sapa-AP |