Police fired tear gas to disperse opposition protesters demanding their voters' cards for elections to choose Togo's first new ruler in 38 years.
"We want our voter's cards now!" hundreds of angry demonstrators yelled outside the capital's town hall Friday. "No voter's card, no elections."
As the crowd threatened to trash the mayor's office, riot police fired tear gas to stop them from entering the building. It was the second protest since an eight-day registration drive ended Tuesday with thousands of voters cards uncollected by people whose names appeared on the electoral roll.
PHOTO: EPA
The government said it would give voters two more days at the weekend to collect voters cards in Lome, the capital. Opposition leaders say the extension should not be limited to the capital.
"This time there will be no fraudulent elections," warned protester Enyonam Tamakloe, a hairdresser, referring to marred elections that kept coup leader General Gnassingbe Eyadema in power.
In a separate development Friday, former exiled Prime Minister Messan Agbeyome Kodjo was arrested by security forces when he tried to enter the country from Benin, the Justice Ministry said.
It said Kodjo was arrested under an international arrest warrant for alleged embezzlement of state funds before he fled to France in 2002, when he fell out of favor with Eyadema.
Eyadema died of a heart attack Feb. 5 and the military tried to install his son as president but an international outcry and protests at home forced him to step down.
Faure Gnassingbe is contesting the elections along with three opposition candidates who charge the ruling party is trying to steal the elections by fixing the voters' rolls.
They accuse it of bloating electoral registers with fictitious and dead people, while preventing opposition supporters from registering.
Interior Minister Akila Esso Boko denied that.
He said 429,415 new voters were registered countrywide this week while 99,923 voters were struck off the rolls. He said 2.25 million voters, about 63 percent, now have voters' cards.
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