Togo opposition rejects Gnassingbe's election victory

Togo's Opposition leader and candidate for Alliance for National Change (ANC) Jean-Pierre Fabre casts his ballot in Kodjoviakope school in Lome April 25, 2015. REUTERS/Noel Kokou Tadegnon

LOME (Reuters) - Togo's main opposition challenger on Wednesday rejected the results of the country's presidential election after incumbent Faure Gnassingbe was declared the winner, reviving fears of a post-election violence. Jean-Pierre Fabre said results announced by the election commission late on Tuesday were fraudulent and did not match those from polling stations compiled by his party. "The results from local electoral commissions where there were no major issues showed that we won by a large margin," Fabre told journalists. "This hard-fought victory, despite all the kinds of obstacles, is a victory for Togo," he added. Togo's election commission had announced that provisional results showed Gnassingbe won the vote with more than 1.2 million votes, or 58.75 percent of the total. The April 25 vote was largely peaceful, but tensions have risen as results trickled in. Hundreds died in unrest after the election in 2005. West African regional leaders led by Ghana's President John Dramani Mahama flew to Lome on Tuesday to meet with Gnassingbe and members of Fabre's CAP 2015 coalition, but failed to overcome opposition reservations about the poll. "This is an electoral coup planned long ago," Patrick Lawson-Banku, Fabre's campaign manager, told a news conference, adding that the opposition will announce its own results. It also called its supporters to the streets to protest against what it called a coup. Gnassingbe has been president since 2005, when his father died after 38 years in charge of the former French colony. He won re-election in another disputed poll in 2010.