Ruling PRS dismisses coalition partner

President Kumba Yala of Guinea-Bissau has dismissed five cabinet members from the Resistencia da Guine Bissau-Movimento Bafata (RGB), the minority party in his ruling coalition, news organisations reported on Wednesday. A humanitarian source in Bissau told IRIN that “this presents a serious crisis in Bissau” since the government has lost the parliamentary majority it had while the RGB and Iala’s Partido da Renovacao Social (PRS) were together. The crisis comes just two months before the government is scheduled to present its programme in parliament, the source said. The PRS has just over one third of the 102 seats in parliament, about half of whose members are either from the RGB or the former ruling Partido Africano da Independencia da Guine e Cabo Verde. According to RDP Antena I, a Portuguese radio station, the rift between the two parties was linked to a letter the RGB sent to Iala protesting the way the country was being governed. RDP reported one of the sacked ministers as saying the letter followed a measure recently adopted by the PRS leadership questioning accords the two parties signed before forming the coalition.