Bissau – Guinea-Bissau’s legislative elections, currently scheduled for December, could be postponed due to logistical and financial constraints, a minister said on Thursday.
The vote “may not be held on the date indicated”, Minister of Territorial Administration Fernando Gomes told reporters after meeting with political party representatives.
President Umaro Sissoco Embalo in May dissolved parliament after falling out with lawmakers, who accused him of having protected MPs implicated in corruption cases and of having refused to be audited.
Embalo called early legislative elections for December 18.
“We were looking for a consensual timetable,” Gomes said. “Not all conditions have been met for credible legislative elections that would be acceptable to all political parties.”
An employee at the technical support office for the electoral process (GTAP), a ministerial body, told AFP the problem was partly down to logistics.
Guinea-Bissau Could Postpone December Legislatives https://t.co/gjwRW0E8b6 via @BarronsOnline
— Ángeles Jurado (@Angeles_Jurado) October 14, 2022
“We are waiting for the arrival of electronic equipment and the end of the rains to start voter registration”, said the employee.
“Some areas of the country are inaccessible – the tracks are damaged by the heavy rains recorded this year.”
A finance ministry official told AFP that the elections would cost about 4 billion CFA francs (6.1 million euros), about half of which has been set aside so far.
The rest – promised by the international community – is not yet available, the official added.
Guinea-Bissau, a former Portuguese colony of around two million people, is notoriously unstable, having suffered four military coups since 1974, most recently in 2012.
Eleven people died in February in violence that was described as an attempted coup.
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Source: AFP
Picture: Twitter/@USEmbalo
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