Parliamentary elections delayed yet again

The president of Guinea-Bissau has admitted that delayed parliamentary elections due on July 6 will have to be postponed again, probably until August or September, because the electoral roll has not yet been updated. President Kumba Yala announced the widely expected delay as he left for Lome on Thursday to attend the inauguration of Togolese President Gnassingbe Eyadema for a further five-year term. Kumba Yala did not give an exact date for the elections, which have now been delayed three times, but he told journalists they would probably be held in August or September. Portuguese state radio and Agence France Presse both quoted the president as saying the actual date would depend on how soon the voter registration process was completed. Kumba Yala had come under heavy pressure from opposition parties and foreign donors to delay the election yet again to ensure that the poll was efficiently organised, free and fair. He dissolved the parliament of this small West African country in November and called elections for February 23. But the date was subsequently put back to April 20 and then July 6. The United Nations has expressed concern about Guinea-Bissau's backslide into economic and political chaos since Kumba Yala was elected president in 2000 after a year-long civil war. On Thursday, the UN Security Council appealed to Yala to "ensure the transparency and credibility of forthcoming legislative elections" after hearing from David Stephen, the senior UN official in Guinea-Bissau, that it was not technically feasible for the vote to take place on July 6 as planned. "It is the Council's expectation that candidates as well as political parties will not be subjected to violence and intimidation and that the presence of international observers at these elections will be acceptable to all parties," said Council President Sergey Lavrov of Russia. Earlier this month, UN Secretary General Kofi Annan expressed concern that Guinea-Bissau had "embarked on a downward course." The cash-strapped government owes several months of pay arrears to the army and civil service. The president has made a series of abrupt changes to his ministerial team amid rumblings from the armed forces. And the country's supreme court has been without a president or vice-president for months. Several opposition parties in the former Portuguese colony urged Kumba Yala on Thursday to appoint a new "government of national consensus" to organise the elections. Helder Vaz, leader of the United Platform coalition of opposition parties, told Portuguese state radio that Kumba Yala should otherwise allow the United Nations to organise the poll.