New consultative organ on the cards

A proposal for the establishment of a consultative organ that would include representatives of Guinea-Bissau’s Military Junta is now being fine-tuned by a commission set up by the Junta, Prime Minister Francisco Fadul told IRIN on Thursday. Once finalised, it is to be discussed by members of the Junta (scheduled to be dissolved at the end of the mandate of the current interim government), the government and political parties at a meeting on Saturday. “What the Junta wants is to create a mechanism for safeguarding its ideals, its values and principles,” Fadul said, “a mechanism for consultation that could meet periodically.” According to the draft being finalised by the commission, the consultative organ would meet every three months, Fadul said, “to evaluate the political process, in particular, to see if the consolidation of democracy is going well with regard to good governance, the fight against corruption”. It would also look at issues such as “the independence of the judiciary, the strengthening of institutional capacity and, at another level, justice and other principles,” he added. The Pacto de regime (Government pact) in which the proposal is contained succeeds a document called the Magna Carta. Discussions on the Magna Carter had caused some concern in Guinea-Bissau, especially since it stated that the Junta would remain in existence for another 10 years and that the president would have to consult with it before appointing senior state officials. Fadul said the Magna Carta had not been authored or approved by the Military Junta, of which he is a member. It had come, he said, from a legal expert close to the Junta, but was leaked even before the Junta had a chance to evaluate the document. This, he said, “was the worst thing that could happen because it gave the impression that the Junta may already have approved the document”. He added, “I am convinced that the Junta will dissolve itself definitively and immediately ... after the election results and the usual swearing-in procedures.” The meeting on the proposed pact will be held on the eve of the country’s second multiparty presidential and legislative elections, originally set for March 1999 under the November 1998 Abuja Agreement between ex-president Nino Vieira and the Military Junta that eventually ousted him in May. The polls were postponed to Sunday to give the interim government more time to organise them.