body-container-line-1

Togo's main opposition leader to run for president in 2015

By AFP
Togo Jean-Pierre Fabre attends the congress of the Union of the Forces of Change in LOme on October 11, 2014.  By Emile Kouton AFP
NOV 1, 2014 LISTEN
Jean-Pierre Fabre attends the congress of the Union of the Forces of Change in LOme on October 11, 2014. By Emile Kouton (AFP)

Lome (AFP) - The leader of Togo's main opposition party has been chosen to stand for president at next year's elections.

Jean-Pierre Fabre, the 62-year-old head of the National Alliance for Change (ANC), was nominated on Friday evening after a meeting of eight parties in the opposition alliance.

Fabre admitted that the path to his nomination had been difficult but added: "It's a big step, a determined, positive step towards the liberation of our country in 2015."

No date for the elections has been set.

The eight opposition parties, called the Combat for Political Alternative in 2015, form part of a wider 12-party grouping called the Let's Save Togo Collective and Rainbow Coalition, which also includes civil society bodies.

Four of the 12 parties refused to take part in discussions that led to the nomination of Fabre, who stood last time round in 2010 and lost to incumbent president Faure Gnassingbe.

Two other candidates have declared their intention to run, including Alberto Olympio, the nephew of the outspoken former opposition leader Gilchrist Olympio.

The opposition have long demanded changes to Togo's constitution to limit a president to a maximum two five-year terms of office.

But lawmakers rejected the reforms on June 30.

Call for changes to be made before next year's elections persist, however, including from church groups and the European Union.

Fabre said: "We are going to work to have unity in the group to mobilise the population to secure political reforms."

Gnassingbe himself has not yet announced whether he will stand for re-election but is widely expected to bid for a third term of office -- the current maximum allowed by the constitution.

He came to power after the death of his father, General Gnassingbe Eyadema, who governed Togo with an iron fist for 38 years.

Gnassingbe junior won the 2005 and 2010 presidential elections but opposition parties disputed the results.

body-container-line