Folks, this is very encouraging.  Who would have thought that a coupists
nominee for interim president can be rejected by an adhoc committee that
mirrors public opinion in Africa?  Well, it is unfolding in Bissau.  All the
more reason why we need to see the events there as an opportunity against
corrupt leaders and tyrants.  The people are going to decide their destiny
and they are not going to kowtow to any bandits.  It is this process that we
need and are going to have in Gambia, soon.  I am optimistic about the
future of Bissau.  Please read on

Nominee for Interim President Rejected

This Day (Lagos)

September 24, 2003
Posted to the web September 24, 2003

Paul Ohia With Agency Report
Lagos

A candidate nominated by the coup leaders in Guinea Bissau to head the
interim government, Antonio Sangha, was rejected yesterday by an adhoc
committee set up to ratify the appointment. The committee which acted in
consonance with public opinion said the businessman was an ally of coup
leader, General Verissimo Correia Seabra.

Seabra, who declared himself acting head of state, told visiting Senegalese
interior minister, Macky Sall, on Sunday that he was willing to step aside
to let a civilian become interim president.


He also gave the same pledge to Mozambican parliamentary affairs minister,
Francisco Caetano Madeira, who arrived as an envoy of the African Union.

But military leaders in the small West African nation remained locked in
discussions with the leaders of 17 political parties on Monday over what
form the new government should take and who should become president and
prime minister.

Sources at the meeting said opinions were divided over whether Artur Sanha,
secretary general of the Social Renovation Party (PRS) of deposed president
Kumba Yala should become prime minister, they added.

The sources said Sanha was the clear favourite for the job, but some
participants objected that he was not politically independent. Others
meanwhile expressed concern over charges that Sanha had killed Florinda
Baptista, a woman with whom he reportedly had a relationship, while he was
interior minister in 2001. Sanha was sacked by Kumba Yala soon after her
death, but court proceedings against him were dropped for lack of evidence.

Correia Seabra, the chief of staff of the armed forces, ousted Kumba Yala in
a bloodless coup on 14 September to prevent this former colony of 1.3
million people from sliding into political and administrative chaos.

Kumba Yala was elected with a strong majority in early 2000, but soon
alienated most of his former supporters. He dissolved parliament in November
last year after it passed a vote of no confidence in him and then delayed
four times the holding of fresh legislative elections. Kumba Yala also
engaged in endless cabinet reshuffles and his bankrupt government owed
soldiers, civil servants, teachers and hospital workers several months of
pay arrears.

An ad-hoc commission of political leaders and military officers chaired by
Jose Camnate Na Bissign, the Roman Catholic bishop of Bissau, proposed on
Friday that fresh parliamentary elections should be held in six months time
and presidential elections a year later.

It also recommended that the interim government be held accountable to a
Transitional National Council, a broad-based council of civilian and
military representatives which would act as a nominated legislature and
consultative body until the holding of parliamentary elections.

Sall told the Senegalese news agency, APS, after meeting Correia Seabra on
Sunday that he had passed on a suggestion from Senegalese President
Abdoulaye Wade that the Guinea-Bissau army should establish a military
watchdog committee to ensure that the transition process was properly
implemented.

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