Guinea-Bissau elections delayed
March 23, 2005 Edition 1
Guinea-Bissau elections delayed
Bissau: Guinea-Bissau will hold presidential polls on June 19, prolonging by a month a transition period meant to shepherd it back to democracy two years after a coup, its interim leader has confirmed.
"Due to technical reasons, the elections will not be able to take place in May, as laid out in the Transition Charter," interim President Henrique Rosa said in a statement broadcast on state radio, it was reported yesterday.
"The presidential polls are fixed for June 19 2005," he said.
The main opposition Party of Social Renewal (PRS) said it and two other parties had refused to sign an agreement extending the transition period, which had been due to end on May 8. Twenty-four other opposition parties had agreed to the delay.
"The PRS will never accept the transition being extended... Beyond May 8 the interim president will lose his legal mandate," PRS spokesman Joaquim Batista said.
Officials said the election had to be delayed because they had only just started drawing up electoral lists - a process which should have begun in February, according to the original transition timetable.
Guinea-Bissau's population of about 1.5 million people scrape by on an average of $140 (R844) a year.
The country has had a history of volatility since its independence from Portugal in 1974.
Its first president was booted out by the military in 1980. His successor suffered the same fate in 1999.
In 2003, President Kumba Yalla was ousted in a coup, whose leaders then chose Rosa, a businessman, as their interim leader. - Reuters
