Opposition threatens fight over third term

Exiled opposition leader Gilchrist Olympio said in a BBC interview on Friday that he would challenge attempts to change Togo’s constitution to allow President Gnassingbe Eyadema to stand for another term.

Togo’s prime minister, Agbeyome Kodjo, had said on Thursday that he was in favour of changing the constitution to enable Eyadema to stand in elections due in 2003, news organisations reported.

Eyadema seized power from Nicolas Grunitzky in 1967. Four years before, Grunitzky had become president as a result of a coup organised by the former army sergeant in which Togo’s first president, Sylvanus Olympio, was killed. Eyadema won multiparty elections in 1993 that were boycotted by the opposition. He was re-elected in 1998 at polls considered by international observers and the Togolese opposition as heavily flawed.

Gilchrist Olympio, the son of the slain president, said Eyadema had such a grip on power that it was difficult for the opposition to function “in a peaceful way.”