Protests in Togo over disputed vote

By John Zodzi and Silvia Aloisi

LOME (Reuters) - Youths hurled rocks and set up blazing barricades in Togo's capital on Tuesday after Faure Gnassingbe, son of the late authoritarian leader, was declared the winner of a presidential vote his rivals say was fixed.

Plumes of black smoke rose into the sky over the coastal city as riot police armed with stun grenades and rubber bullets fired tear gas and played cat-and-mouse with groups of furious opposition supporters, who sallied forward to throw stones.

Shops and businesses were looted, walls smashed and trees hacked down, crushing phone booths. A Chinese diplomat said his embassy had been attacked by youths who broke windows, the gate and a car before stealing a motorbike.

Sporadic gunfire rang out. A Reuters reporter saw three men being beaten by police officers and taken away as women at the scene wept.

"We are not happy. They've cheated us. Togo's not a kingdom," said Kabir, an unemployed man with a large knife and his face painted white to stop tear gas stinging his skin.

But in another part of the city, thousands of Gnassingbe supporters in a convoy of trucks celebrated their victory.

Gnassingbe, whose father Gnassingbe Eyadema died in February after ruling the West African country for 38 years, won 60.22 percent of the vote, according to provisional results announced by electoral commission chief Kissem Tchangai-Walla.

"Enough internecine quarrels, enough political quarrels. Now it's time for reconciliation and development," Gnassingbe told reporters after his victory was announced. "We need to come together to rebuild our country."

"Faure or nothing. Faure or hell," yelled one Gnassingbe supporter among thousands of party faithful in white T-shirts, some armed with chains, machetes, clubs and sticks, in a victory parade snaking through the capital.

"I'm really happy because Faure has won. With him I know I am always going to have a job. We are thanking God that he chose Faure," said Mariette, 32, a market vendor.

"CREDIBLE" POLL

The main opposition leader, Gilchrist Olympio, told Reuters by telephone from exile in neighbouring Ghana that his party would reject the result because of fraud and his senior officials in Lome called for a popular resistance.

"Lome is burning," he said. "But the only solution is to come to a political settlement ... otherwise we are going right into the abyss."

African leaders want to avoid another conflict in a region already struggling to end intertwined wars. Togo also provides an important Atlantic port for poor landlocked neighbours.

The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), which pushed hard for the elections to take place and deployed 150 monitors, said the violence and anomalies witnessed during the voting did not call into question the poll's credibility.

Togo spun into chaos when Eyadema died. The army named Gnassingbe as president, saying they feared a dangerous political vacuum. Gnassingbe finally stepped down and called elections after an international outcry and street protests.

Togo's opposition militants have been cowed by decades of authoritarian rule and heavy-handed repression but the sudden death of Eyadema -- who led a 1963 coup and declared himself president four years later -- stiffened their resolve.

The election effectively became a referendum on a generation of repressive rule by Eyadema's northern clan in what was a prosperous country before its economy nosedived in the 1990s.

Main opposition candidate Emmanuel Akitani-Bob won 38.19 percent of the vote and turnout was around 64 percent. Olympio was barred from the poll under a residency law.

Gnassingbe, a business-minded 39-year-old, stood for the ruling Rally of the Togolese People (RPT) party in the vote.

"The old structures put in place by Gnassingbe I have been upheld by Gnassingbe II. It is the continuity of the old Eyadema structure," Olympio said.