New Togolese Prime Minister Yawovi Agboyibo's efforts to form a national unity government suffered an early blow today when a veteran opposition figure said his party would boycott the new administration.
"We're not participating in this government," Gilchrist Olympio, leader of the main opposition party, Union of Forces for Change (UFC), told French RFI radio from France, where he has been living in exile.
In a major step yesterday towards ending decades of political divisions in the former French colony, President Faure Gnassingbe appointed senior opposition figure Mr Agboyibo as prime minister to organise parliamentary polls for next year.
Togolese opposition figure Yawovi Agboyibo
Mr Agboyibo said he wanted to form a power-sharing cabinet bringing together all tendencies to reconcile the tiny West African country, which erupted into violent protests last year after the death of Mr Gnassingbe's father, archetypal African strongman Gnassingbe Eyadema, who had ruled for four decades.
But Mr Olympio, whose party joined other groups last month in signing a political reconciliation pact agreeing to the idea of a power-sharing government, said the administration to be formed by Mr Agboyibo would not truly reflect national unity.
"In the end, it's a government of the ruling RPT (Rally of the Togolese People) party and its satellite parties," he said.
Political analysts said the UFC boycott appeared to be motivated by
The new premier, Mr Agboyibo, a leader of the opposition Committee of Action for Renewal who had helped broker last month's agreement, said he still hoped to persuade the UFC to join his government.
The forming of a unity government would take Togo closer to the resumption of aid from the European Union, which froze most funding in 1993 citing its poor democratic record. It has made dialogue between the government and opposition a condition of restarting aid.