Emmanuel Bob-Akitani is a Togo

Togo

Togo, officially the Togolese Republic , is a country in West Africa bordered by Ghana to the west, Benin to the east and Burkina Faso to the north. It extends south to the Gulf of Guinea, on which the capital Lomé is located. Togo covers an area of approximately with a population of approximately...

lese politician who was the main opposition candidate in the 2003

Togolese presidential election, 2003

Presidential elections were held in Togo on 1 June 2003. The result was a victory for incumbent President Gnassingbé Eyadéma, who won 57.8% of the vote.-Results:* Gnininvi withdrew his candidacy in May but remained on the ballot paper....

 and 2005 Togolese presidential elections

Togolese presidential election, 2005

A presidential election was held in Togo on April 24, 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 election and the period preceding it were marked by...

. He is the Honorary President of the Union of Forces for Change

Union of Forces for Change

The Union of Forces for Change is the main opposition political party in Togo. The President of the UFC was Gilchrist Olympio and its Secretary-General is Jean-Pierre Fabre until August 10th 2010. Olympio is the son of the first President of Togo, Sylvanus Olympio, who was assassinated in a 1963...

 (UFC).

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

Gilchrist Olympio is a Togolese politician and the President of the Union of Forces for Change , the country's main opposition party. Since the late 1970s, Mr...

 had been barred from running due to his failure to meet the residency requirement. According to official results, he placed second behind long-time President Gnassingbé Eyadéma

Gnassingbé Eyadéma

General Gnassingbé Eyadéma , was the President of Togo from 1967 until his death in 2005. He participated in two successful military coups, in January 1963 and January 1967, and became President on April 14, 1967...

 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, Faure Gnassingbé

Faure Gnassingbé

Faure Essozimna Gnassingbé has been the President of Togo since May 4, 2005. A son of President Gnassingbé Eyadéma, he was appointed to the government by his father, serving as Minister of Equipment, Mines, Posts, and Telecommunications from 2003 to 2005...

, amidst widespread allegations of seized ballot boxes and other electoral fraud

Electoral fraud

Electoral fraud is illegal interference with the process of an election. Acts of fraud affect vote counts to bring about an election result, whether by increasing the vote share of the favored candidate, depressing the vote share of the rival candidates or both...

.

At a UFC party congress in July 2008, Bob-Akitani was named Honorary President of the UFC.