Delayed elections now set for October 12

Parliamentary elections in Guinea-Bissau, which have already been delayed three times this year, are to take place on 12 October, President Kumba Yala announced on Monday. However, the head of the National Electoral Commission (CNE), Higinio Cardoso, said it might be difficult to complete all the necessary preparations by then. A diplomatic source in Bissau said Kumba Yala, who dissolved parliament last November, may have announced the new election date under pressure from a UN Security Council mission,which visited Guinea-Bissau last week. "The delegation sent a strong message to the government," he noted. Mexico's ambassador to the United Nations, Adolfo Aguilar Zinser, who led the mission said on departure: "We leave confident that the President will be ready to announce a new date for the elections very soon." President Kumba Yala was elected in 2000 after his predecessor was overthrown by a coup which led to a year-long civil war in this former Portuguese colony of 1.3 million people. However, UN Secretary General Kofi Annan recently expressed concern that with parliamentary elections delayed and civil servants and soldiers owed big pay arrears, the democratic process was faltering. He told the Security Council in early June that Guinea-Bissau had "embarked on a downward course." Shortly after Kumba Yala announced the new election date, Portuguese state radio quoted Cardoso, the head of the electoral commission, as saying there might still be difficulties in drawing up a new voters' register and raising the necessary finance to hold elections by October 12. Idrissa Diallo, the leader of the opposition National Unity Party (PUN), also cast doubt on the government's ability to organise free and fair elections by then. "For us, this date runs the same risk, as the prior ones, not to be met," Portuguese state radio quoted him as saying. According to the diplomatic source, the "money issue" remained of great concern. "There has been stalemate-like situation between the government and the international community with the latter demanding that the government fulfill a minimum requirement to ensure free, fair and transparent elections," he added. "The international community's concerns are heightened further by lack of press freedom since November last year," the source said, adding that the opposition had no access to the media.