Folks, the battle of ideas is on.  Now the generals want their nominee in.
We'll see what the people of Bissau will agree to.  Please read on.

Army Insists On PM Nominee

September 25, 2003
Posted to the web September 25, 2003

Isichei Osamgbi And Paul Ohia With Agency Report
Lagos

Barely 24 hours after the adhoc committee consisting of political leadders,
rejected Guinea-Bissau military junta's candidate for the position of prime
minister, the coup leaders have insisted that Antonio Artur Sanha should
head a transitional government charged with organising fresh elections. It
over-rode objections to his appointment by most of the country's political
leaders.

Sanha is the secretary general of the Social Renovation Party (PRS) which
produced deposed President Kumba Yala. Yala lost power in a bloodless coup
on September 14.


Some critics said the position of prime minister should go to a politically
independent person, while others recalled suspicions that Sanha may have
killed Florinda Baptista, a woman that he was alleged to have had an affair
with, shortly before he was sacked from the cabinet . Murder charges raised
against him were eventually dropped for lack of evidence

He fell out with Kumba Yala in 2001 when he was sacked as interior minister.
However Sanha's appointment as prime minister by the coupists was opposed by
15 of the 17 political parties which have been holding talks with the
country's military leaders.

The country's political and military leaders who are also saddled with the
job now thrash out a timetable for holding elections and returning this
former Portuguese colony of 1.3 million people to constitutional rule.

An ad-hoc commission of political leaders and military officers chaired by
Jose Camnate Na Bissign, the Roman Catholic bishop of Bissau, proposed last
Friday that parliamentary elections 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.

The presidents of Nigeria, Ghana and Senegal visited Guinea-Bissau last week
to press the military junta, led by General Verissimo Correia Seabra, for a
rapid return to civilian rule.

Portugal's secretary of state for foreign affairs and overseas development,
Antonio Lourenco dos Santos, arrived on Tuesday to hold talks with local
leaders on the country's future.

Although Yala was elected with a strong majority in free and fair elections
in early 2000, he soon alienated most of his former supporters. His
government became increasingly erratic and his overthrow was greeted with
widespread relief at home.

Yala dissolved parliament in November last year after it passed a vote of no
confidence in his rule and then delayed four times the holding of fresh
legislative elections.

He also engaged in endless cabinet reshuffles and his bankrupt government
owed soldiers, civil servants, teachers and hospital workers several months
of pay arrears.

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