By Allen Yero Embalo
Guinea-Bissau’s electoral commission announced yesterday that conditions had not been met to organise its 6th December presidential and legislative vote, which was meant to restore civilian rule after a coup last November.
Junta leader General Horta N’Tam summoned the National Electoral Commission (CNE) for a meeting, its vice president Felisberta Moura Vaz told reporters.
She said the body had informed him that the “conditions necessary to organise elections by 6th December will not be met”.
When asked by journalists about the possibility of delaying the vote, Vaz replied: “I will not say that the elections will be postponed. That is a matter for the transitional president”, another title held by N’Tam.
The army in Guinea-Bissau seized power last November just days after a presidential vote, overthrowing president Umaro Sissoco Embalo and suspending the electoral process.
The junta established under N’Tam, a close associate of Embalo, had set 6th December as the date for presidential and legislative elections meant to restore civilian rule.
N’Tam’s prime minister, Ilidio Vieira Te, said yesterday that “the conditions for holding credible elections do not exist”.
He said that “no political party is yet in an ideal position to contest the elections” and that “the leadership of most of these parties is outdated. This calls for a renewal of the grassroots organisations”.
In August Guinea-Bissau’s leaders held a referendum in which voters ushered in a constitutional change that gives the president more powers.
The junta said the change would stabilise institutions before the elections, but the opposition urged citizens to boycott the process.
Lucie Peytermann and Becca Milfeld in Dakar contributed to this story