The president of Togo's election commission has declared the son of the late president as the winner of the presidential race with 60.9 per cent of the vote.

Issifou Tabio said provisional results showed on Saturday that Faure Gnassingbe won 1.2 million votes of the two million votes cast.

Opposition leader Jean-Pierre Fabre received 692,584 votes.

The contentious election was the second since the death of Eyadema Gnassingbe. The family has ruled for 43 years.

Earlier on Saturday police fired tear gas on some 200 protesters angry that the opposition party was trailing, Abalo Assih, a police spokesman, said.

Tension rose in Lome, the capital of Togo, as the nation awaited the release of the final results of Thursday's poll.

Call for calm

In a statement broadcast on state television, the independent electoral commission urged candidates and voters to "exercise patience and serenity while the commission makes every effort to centralize the results from various polling stations".

The race pitted six opposition candidates against Gnassingbe, 43, who came to power in 2005 after the death of his father, General Gnassingbe Eyadema, whose dictatorial rule lasted 38 years.

Gnassingbe vowed that this poll will raise Togo to new heights, on the basis of "a state of law".

Voting deemed 'peaceful'

With the main opposition party expressing concern over possible electoral fraud, 40 international observers were deployed by the African Union, 130 by the European Union and 150 civilians and 146 soldiers by the Economic Community of West African States (Ecowas) to oversee the elections.

The commission had vowed to stage a free and fair poll, devoid of violence, and observers agreed the voting was peaceful.

Election officials were trying to prevent a situation similar to Togo's presidential election in 2005 when hundreds of people died in post-election violence.

The violence that followed the disputed vote in 2005 left up to 800 dead according to various sources, but the UN put the toll at 400 to 500 deaths.

Yet parliamentary elections two years later were peaceful, raising hopes of an end to Togo's long history of political violence and leading to the restoration of foreign aid.