(Adds details, background) By John Zodzi LOME, Oct 17 (Reuters) - Togo's ruling Rally of the Togolese People party won a majority of at least 49 of 81 parliamentary seats in the West African country's legislative elections, electoral authorities said on Wednesday. According to official provisional results from Sunday's polls, the opposition Union of Forces for Change (UFC) party won at least 21 seats, while another opposition party, the Action Committee for Renewal (CAR), obtained four seats. Voting results for the seven remaining seats were still being tallied and would be released on Thursday, officials from the independent national electoral commission in the former French colony told a news conference in Lome. Once the total results are announced, they will be presented for confirmation to the constitutional court, which can also hear any legal challenges. Electoral officials said voter turnout was 95 percent, reflecting popular enthusiasm in the Oct. 14 polls in which opposition parties participated for the first time in 13 years. They had boycotted the last parliamentary elections in 2002. GENERALLY FREE AND FAIR European and African election observers have praised Sunday's vote, in which more than 2,000 candidates from over 30 parties competed, as generally free and fair and a positive step for Togo's still fragile democracy. Togolese authorities hope the successful elections will lead to a full resumption of international aid to their country, which has suffered decades of authoritarian rule and periods of bloody unrest since independence in 1960. The European Union, once Togo's biggest donor, froze most aid to the country in 1993, citing the poor democratic record of then president Gnassingbe Eyadema, an archetypal African "Big Man" who ruled Togo for four decades. He died in February 2005. The army named his son, Faure Gnassingbe, as president, violating the constitution and provoking violent protests in which hundreds of opposition supporters were killed by the security forces. Tens of thousands more fled the country. After winning flawed and violent 2005 elections, Gnassingbe opened a dialogue with opposition parties and formed a national unity government, starting a democratic process that led to Sunday's multi-party elections.
