• EU monitors cautiously vouch for the result, but cite instances of vote-buying
• Opposition claims widespread pre-election voter intimidation by ruling party
• Constitutional court to rule on results within days

Togo's top opposition candidate has vowed to take to the streets every day in protest against what he says was an election rigged to favour the son of the country's longtime dictator.

"I am ready to die," opposition leader Jean-Pierre Fabre said a few minutes before walking outside the party's headquarters before a column of anti-riot police. "We're going to make them exhaust their stock of tear gas. We cannot let this go on, otherwise they'll hang on to power for the next 200 years."

Provisional results released late Saturday show Fabre lost to current President Faure Gnassingbe, whose 1.2 million votes gave him 60.9 per cent of the vote. Fabre received 692,584 votes, or 33.9 per cent.

A report released over the weekend by the European Union's observation mission did not find evidence of vote tampering or ballot stuffing as the opposition alleges, but did determine that the ruling party may have attempted to buy off voters.

The observer mission's report said EU election monitors were present in at least four different regions of the country when the ruling party handed out rice to potential voters at three to four times less than market price.

Grabbed power

The election was only the second since the death of Gnassingbe Eyadema, who grabbed power in a 1967 coup and ruled for 38 years, only for his son to grab control upon his death. The younger Gnassingbe's victory in the recent election extends the family's rule into a 44th year and will mean the political dynasty will stay in power for nearly half a century.

Early results indicated that in the provinces where the rice was given out, voter turnout was high and people overwhelmingly voted for Gnassingbe. The district-by-district results also show that voter turnout was extremely low in opposition strongholds, such as Lome.

The opposition claims their voters were systematically intimidated and are traumatised by memories of the last election five years ago in which at least 400 people were killed in post-election violence, during which pro-Gnassingbe militias hunted down opposition voters, killing many in their own homes, according to a United Nations report and an investigation by Amnesty International.

The 57-year-old Fabre, who studied economics and finance in France, says opposition voters were too afraid to go to the polls after being told that the inked fingerprint they are required to leave on the ballot would be used to trace them.

"The ruling party told our supporters that when they put their fingerprint on the ballot, they're going to be able to come and find them," said Fabre. "They gave money to buy people's consciences, there is fraud on a massive scale, we have the proof in our possession."

Campaign finance law

He said the party will present its findings to the constitutional court, which will formalise the election results next week.

At least 13 people have been arrested on suspicion of trying to incite the population to revolt since the results were announced late Saturday, said Col. Damehane Yark, commander of the special election security force. They include a close associate of an opposition candidate who handed out tracts calling on the population not to accept the results.

Togo's ruling party has denied claims that they tried to buy the vote. President Gnassingbe's spokesman Pascal Bodjona on Saturday called the opposition "bad losers" after the results were announced.

He said that the rice given out in the provinces — nicknamed "Faure Rice" — was the donation of businessmen that wanted to show their support for Gnassingbe. He denied that the ruling party had outspent the roughly $100,000 allowed under the country's campaign finance law, as the EU report alleges, even thought the capital is wallpapered with Gnassingbe's enormous posters.