Togo candidates make last-minute pitches to voters

Candidates in Togo's parliamentary elections made final pitches to voters today ahead of polls that will see the west African nation's opposition try to loosen the ruling family's decades-long grip on power.
Thursday's vote comes after months of delays amid protests by a coalition of opposition and civil society groups known as "Let's Save Togo" that seeks electoral reforms.
Authorities have dispersed many of these protests with tear gas, but negotiations in recent weeks have led to a deal that saw the opposition drop threats to boycott the poll.
On the final day of campaigning, "Let's Save Togo" held a closing rally at a sports stadium in the capital Lome for roughly 2,000 supporters. Some danced, sang and wore bright orange t-shirts to show support for the coalition.

"We want a real change ... A small group of people is hoarding all of the country's wealth," said Djagba Lare, 57, a port worker and opposition supporter.
President Faure Gnassingbe's Union for the Republic (UNIR) party has put up posters across Lome, with supporters gathering in the Aboue neighbourhood for a final campaign event.

Several thousands of UNIR supporters in blue and black gathered, singing and dancing on the grounds of a school in Aboue, a densely populated district on the northern outskirts of Lome.
"We want a comfortable majority to enable the head of state to continue what he started since 2005," a government minister overseeing women's advancement, Patricia Dagban-Zonvide, who heads the ruling party's list of candidates in Lome, told AFP.

She cited in particular economic growth and improvements in infrastructure.
A 25-year-old taxi driver, Cameo, described UNIR as the party of "peace and development", and the one capable of uniting the nation.
Gnassingbe's UNIR party won 50 of the 81 seats in 2007 elections.
Ninety-one seats will be up for grabs this time, with 26 political parties participating.
The main opposition candidates include Jean Pierre Fabre, head of the National Alliance for Change, who finished second to Gnassingbe in a 2010 presidential vote. His party is part of the "Let's Save Togo" coalition.