Protests in Togo after late ruler's son wins poll

LOME, Tuesday (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, surging forward to throw stones.

Scared residents scurried for cover down rapidly emptying streets in a city already shaken by weeks of deadly protests. In the opposition neighbourhood of Doulafame, a group of about angry 50 protesters, armed with knives, sticks, rocks and machetes, hid in a yard as police patrolled on foot nearby.

"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.

"Lome is burning," main opposition leader Gilchrist Olympio told Reuters by telephone from Ghana, where he lives in exile.

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.

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