Parliament sticks to poll date

Guinea-Bissau’s national assembly says a run-off presidential poll pitting Kumba Yala against interim President Malam Sanha will go ahead as planned on 16 January despite a request for a week-long delay, news reports and humanitarian sources have said. The assembly rejected an appeal by Yala’s Partido da Renovacao Social (PRS) that the elections be held 23 January, to give it time to organise and fund its campaign, Reuters reported. A humanitarian source told IRIN on Friday that Yala was undergoing medical care in Portugal but was due to return to Bissau on Sunday. Yala won the first round on 28 November with 38.81 percent of the votes. Sanha, the runner up, polled 23.37 percent. In legislative polls, run simultaneously with the first round of the presidentials, the Partido da Renovacao Social (PRS) won 38 of the 102 seats in the assembly, followed by the Resistencia da Guine-Bissau (RGB) with 29.