LOME (Reuters) - Togolese Prime Minister Komlan Mally has resigned less than a year after taking office following the small West African country's first multi-party election in 13 years, state television said.
"The president of the republic has accepted the resignationof Komlan Mally," state television said late on Friday. Noreason was given for his departure. A presidential spokesmansaid a new head of government would be appointed.
Mally, a member of President Faure Gnassingbe's Rally ofthe Togolese People (RPT) party, became premier in December.
His resignation may clear the way for Gnassingbe toreshuffle his ministers and appoint a new team ahead of a 2010presidential poll in which he is expected to stand forre-election, observers said.
"This may be linked to the 2010 presidential election,"said Togoata Apedo-Amah, professor of humanities at theUniversity of Lome, who said Mally had lost authority.
Among Togolese voters, Mally appeared an increasinglypowerless figure who lacked control over his own ministers, animpression that opposition party the Union for the Forces ofChange had begun to exploit.
His authority had diminished to the point where Gnassingbefrequently intervened to solve political problems and conflictswith trade unions.
"The Prime Minister has no power. The decisions taken, hecannot question," Apedo-Amah said.
Togo, a former French colony, is the world's fourth-largestphosphate producer and also exports coffee, cocoa and cotton.
The European Union, Togo's biggest donor, resumed fulleconomic cooperation late last year, citing the success ofmulti-party elections held in October 2007.
The bloc had frozen most aid in 1993 because of what itconsidered a poor democratic record, including decades ofauthoritarian rule and periods of bloody unrest sinceindependence in 1960.
"The main aim of the government was to renew links with theinternational community. That objective has now been achieved,"a spokesman for the president said during Friday's broadcast.
Once among West Africa's most prosperous states, Togodepends heavily on both commercial and subsistence agriculture,which provides employment for 65 percent of the workforce.
Some basic foodstuffs must still be imported.
Cocoa, coffee and cotton generate about 40 percent ofexport earnings with cotton the most important cash crop.
(Reporting by John Zodzi; Editing by Daniel Magnowski andRobert Hart)
