BISSAU, Nov 25 (AFP) - Authorities in Guinea-Bissau are largely ready to
hold early legislative elections in February or March, but need 2.2 million
euros (dollars) to prepare the poll, a top electoral official has said.
   "If the international community rapidly puts this sum at the disposal of
the ministry of internal administration, we'll be able to hold the election
in February," the executive secretary of the National Electoral Commission
(CNE), Filomeno Lobo de Pina, told AFP on Sunday.
    He said an electoral data bank had already been created in the small
west African country, and "we need just to carry out a complementary census
of about 40,000 voters" to add to the list of 508,000 registered in 1999.
   A parliamentary election had not been due until the end of next year,
but  President Kumba Yala on November 15 dismissed a government which he
accused of incompetence and dissolved the National Assembly, citing "a very
serious economic crisis".
   Since then, a transitional government, pending the election and
dominated by members of Yala's ruling Social Renovation Party (PRS), has
been formed by a new prime minister, Pedro Pires.
   The PRS does not have a majority in the outgoing parliament, which was
elected in 1999.
   Under the constitution, a parliamentary election should be held within
90 days of the dissolution of the National Assembly.
   Lobo de Pina said the 40,000 people to be added the electoral roll
included nationals living abroad and those who were not old enough to vote
in 1999.

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