LOME, Togo — The son of Togo's late dictator won a resounding victory in a presidential election, sending enraged opposition supporters into the streets yesterday, where they built flaming barricades and used machetes and nail-studded clubs to battle police and soldiers.

Faure Gnassingbe won 1.3 million votes, or 60 percent, while main opposition candidate Bob Akitani took 841,000, or 38 percent, electoral commission Chairwoman Kissem Tchangai Walla said.

Sunday's balloting in this impoverished West African nation was marred by violence and allegations of vote-tampering.

The military had installed Gnassingbe as president shortly after his father, Gnassingbe Eyadema, died of a heart attack Feb. 5. Eyadema's 38 years in power had made him Africa's longest-ruling dictator. Amid heavy international pressure, his 39-year old son agreed to an election.

After the results were announced, mobs of young men raged across the capital of Lome, setting stacks of tires ablaze and unleashing plumes of smoke that darkened the horizon. The U.S. Embassy had six teams of observers in the field, according to State Department spokesman Adam Ereli.

A spokeswoman for the 15-nation Economic Community of West African States, which had 127 observers in Togo, declared the elections fair, saying votes uncounted amid violence Sunday in Lome weren't enough to cause concern.

Gnassingbe and a senior figure from Akitani's party had agreed Monday in nearby Nigeria that whoever won would form a government of national unity.

Akitani went into hiding as the voting took place, saying he feared for his life, and his whereabouts were not known.

Gnassingbe campaigned as a modern technocrat devoted to political and economic reform. His campaign Web site spoke of his ease with e-mail and mobile phone text messages to illustrate his ability to "exploit new technologies to be most efficient."

"I am the new image of Togolese youth, the new image of Togo," Gnassingbe said at campaign rallies. "I'm going to take this country to the next level. More freedom, more democracy. It's the only way we can solve our problems."

Despite his efforts to escape his negative legacy, many fear Gnassingbe is only a pawn of his father's political machine, which has left the country of 5 million in economic shambles.

Before entering politics three years ago with a successful run for parliament, Gnassingbe managed his father's estates and ran a management consultancy. He studied in France before earning an MBA from George Washington University in the United States.