President Faure Gnassingbe of Togo

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Original source: Agência Brasil [1]
Author: Ricardo Stuckert/PR
Permission: This file is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 2.5 Brazil License

Gnassingbe said he would be a candidate and ensure stability in the run-up to the vote.

Faure Gnassingbe was sworn in on Wednesday as Togo's new president, succeeding his father who died suddenly after ruling the west African country for nearly four decades.

It was no great surprise when 39-year-old Faure Gnassingbe was hurriedly installed by the military as Togo's new president in February 2005 when his father Gnassingbe Eyadema died.

Gnassingbe said he is unreservedly committed to democratic change and a policy of openness.

Prior to stepping down, Gnassingbe was selected as leader of the ruling party and named as a candidate in the announced presidential elections to choose a successor to Eyadema.

Faure Gnassingbe was pronounced the winner and was pressed by the international community--including regional heads of state--to form a government of national unity, including key opposition figures.

and to organise a presidential election within the constitutional timeframe of 60 days,? Gnassingbe said late Friday in a long-awaited television broadcast to the nation.

He will bear the responsibility for the destruction of Togo," Leopold Gnininvi, head of the Democratic Convention of the African People (CDPA) opposition party, told IRIN on Friday night, minutes after Gnassingbe had stated his intention to remain in power.

Gnassingbe was Minister for Public Works, Mines, Posts and Telecommunications when his father died and thus ineligible to head the national assembly.

On Friday, a group of around 50 lawyers decked out in their black robes gathered on the steps of the capital?s law courts to protest the way in which Gnassingbe had ridden roughshod over the country?s laws.

Faure Gnassingbe has been a president's son his whole life.

Despite a tide of international condemnation, the threat of sanctions from neighbouring West African states and protests on the streets of the capital, Lome, crushed by police firing live bullets into the crowd, Gnassingbe has refused to stand down.

I think any thinking man is capable of seeing the light, but Gnassingbe is stuck in the dark, surrounded by hawks.

Until the end of this week, Gnassingbe had largely managed to avoid the diplomatic limelight as international condemnation bored down on him.

reinstates Koffi Sama as prime minister.

His son Faure Gnassingbe was elected to the presidency in a 24 April poll that opposition said was rigged.

task of uniting Togo and pushing it into a middle income economy.

Many still wonder how Gnassingbe was nominated since the convention was kept secret.

On the same day, however, Gnassingbe was appointed chairman of his father’s ruling political party, Rassemblement du Peuple Togolaise (RPT.

Gnassingbe is also under pressure at home, where at least 10,000 people demonstrated in the capital Lome on Saturday in the largest protest so far against his rule.

Following some constitutional changes in the National Assembly and quick action by the military, Faure Gnassingbe was installed as the new president.

Togolese leader Faure Gnassingbe said Feb 25 that he was stepping down as president of the West African country after mounting international pressure for him to resign before elections are held in.

Togolese leader Faure Gnassingbe said Feb 25 he was stepping down as president.

Togolese President Faure Gnassingbe is to arrive in Accra, the capital of Ghana, on Wednesday to attend the inauguration of newly elected President John Atta-Mills, the presidential office announced.

Togo's President Faure Gnassingbe has named Gilbert Fossoun Houngbo, an accountant and senior United Nations official, to be prime minister of the small West African state, the government said today.

Gnassingbe was sworn in as president Wednesday.

I'll never return to my country as long as Gnassingbe is in power," Amegnigan Kossi said as he sat under a tent.

is normally laid on for recognised heads of state.

Violent protests have erupted in Togo after ruling party candidate Faure Gnassingbe was declared the winner of Sundays bitterly disputed presidential election.

Togos election commission says ruling party candidate Faure Gnassingbe is the winner of Sundays presidential election.