The Coalition for Unity and Democracy (CUD) said its proposal might heal rifts that cracked open after May 15 parliamentary elections, which led to street protests in which 36 died when police opened fire on demonstrators.

“We believe that a government of national unity would be a solution to the very dangerous situation building up in the country which has been very badly fractured,” CUC official Yacob Haile Mariam told a press conferernce.

“It is possible that the country would be ungovernable if the ruling Ethiopian Peoples Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF) assumes power,” he said.

The electoral board on Monday confirmed final vote results that showed Prime Minister Meles Zenawi’s ruling EPRDF and allied parties have enough seats in the 547-member parliament to form the next government.

But the CUD and the opposition United Ethiopian Democratic Forces rejected the results. The opposition sharply increased its standing in the polls, widely seen as Ethiopia’s most democratic vote yet.

Information Minister Bereket Simon, also a spokesperson for the EPRDF, rejected the unity proposal as “unthinkable.”

“A government of national unity is unconstitutional and will be a government of permanent crisis that Ethiopia does not deserve,” he said.

Bereket said the opposition was trying to circumvent the constitution to form a government after losing the election.

Hailu Araya, a CUD spokesman, said the party had not yet decided if it will participate in the next parliament.

The EPRDF has said it expects to convene parliament later this month to elect a prime minister, widely expected to be Meles again.

The prime minister would form a cabinet and submit it to parliament for approval in early October, he said.

The election was only the second real multi-party poll in Africa’s top coffee producer, the second most populous country in sub-Saharan Africa with 72 million people.

Meles has in the past been feted by Western leaders and was a prominent member of the British-sponsored Africa Commission giving recommendations to the G8 group of rich nations on how to tackle the continent’s problems.