Emmanuel Bob-Akitani (July 18, 1930
UFC website, May 27, 2003 . – May 16, 2011
UFC website, May 16, 2011 .) was a
Togo
Togo (), officially the Togolese Republic (french: République togolaise), is a country in West Africa. It is bordered by Ghana to the west, Benin to the east and Burkina Faso to the north. It extends south to the Gulf of Guinea, where its c ...
lese politician who was the main opposition candidate in the
2003
File:2003 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: The crew of STS-107 perished when the Space Shuttle Columbia disintegrated during reentry into Earth's atmosphere; SARS became an epidemic in China, and was a precursor to SARS-CoV-2; A des ...
and
2005 Togolese presidential election
Presidential elections were held in Togo on 24 April 2005, following the death in office of long-time president Gnassingbé Eyadéma. The main candidates were Eyadéma's son, Faure Gnassingbé, and opposition leader Emmanuel Bob-Akitani. The ele ...
s. He was the Honorary President of the
Union of Forces for Change
The Union of Forces for Change (french: Union des Forces du Changement) is an opposition political party in Togo. The President of the UFC was Gilchrist Olympio (UFC).
Born in 1930 in
Aného,
Lacs Prefecture, Bob-Akitani was a founding member of the UFC and was, at the time of the 2003 election, the UFC's First Vice-President.
[ Akitani stood as the UFC's candidate in 2003 because UFC President ]Gilchrist Olympio
Gilchrist Olympio (born 26 December 1936) is a Togolese politician who was a long-time opponent of the regime of Gnassingbé Eyadéma and was President of the Union of Forces for Change (UFC), Togo's main opposition party from the 1990s til 2013.< ...
had been barred from running due to his failure to meet the residency requirement.["Togo: Eyadema wins 57% majority in presidential election"]
IRIN, June 5, 2003. According to official results, he placed second behind long-time President Gnassingbé Eyadéma
Gnassingbé Eyadéma (; born Étienne Gnassingbé, 26 December 1935 – 5 February 2005) was the president of Togo from 1967 until his death in 2005, after which he was immediately succeeded by his son, Faure Gnassingbé.
Eyadéma participated i ...
in the 2003 election, with 33.68% of the vote against 57.78% for Eyadéma. The UFC alleged fraud and Bob-Akitani claimed to have won the election.[ Following Eyadéma's death, he ran again in the April 2005 election as the candidate of an opposition coalition that included the UFC. He was again declared runner-up in the election, behind Eyadéma's son, , amidst widespread allegations of seized ballot boxes and other ]electoral fraud
Electoral fraud, sometimes referred to as election manipulation, voter fraud or vote rigging, involves illegal interference with the process of an election, either by increasing the vote share of a favored candidate, depressing the vote share of ...
.
At a UFC party congress in July 2008, Bob-Akitani was named Honorary President of the UFC."L’UFC a désigné son candidat pour la présidentielle"
Republicoftogo.com, July 20, 2008 . He died in May 2011 in Lomé
Lomé is the capital and largest city of Togo. It has an urban population of 837,437 .[
]
References
1930 births
2011 deaths
Togolese democracy activists
Union of Forces for Change politicians
21st-century Togolese people
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