Key official calls for parliamentary election in January

The head of Guinea-Bissau’s National Electoral Comission (NEC)has called for parliamentary elections to be held in January, several months ahead of the target set by the transitional authorities. NEC president Higino Cardoso pointed out that 95 percent of the preparations for elections had already been completed before the bloodless coup that deposed former President Kumba Yala on 14 September. Following three earlier postponements, the elections had been set for 12 October. However, shortly before Kumba Yala’s overthrow, election officials warned that the poll would have to be delayed further if it was to free, fair and properly organised. Cardoso stressed that the NEC had sufficient funds to organise elections for January, with contributions coming from the European Union, the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), the Netherlands, Sweden and the West African Economic and Monetary Union (UEMOA). Speaking on Thursday, he warned there might be a serious shortfall in funding if the elections were delayed beyond the start of 2004. The NEC and the political parties represented on it were due to submit a memorandum outlining their concerns to the Transitional National Council, the body set up to oversee Guinea-Bissau’s return to elected government. The Transitional Charter, the document adopted by the council to guide the return to democracy, provides for legislative elections to be held within six months, with presidential elections to follow one year later. West African governments and international donors have stressed the need for a rapid return to constitutional normality in this former Portuguese colony of 1.3 million people. General Verissimo Seabra, the army chief of staff who led the coup against Kumba Yala's chaotic and unpopular government, now appears to be taking a lower profile, leaving policy announcements and diplomatic initiatives to transitional president Henrique Rosa and his prime minister Artur Sanha. Both men are civilians who were appointed by the army after consultations with the Guinea-Bissau's main political parties. Mobilising international support has become a key priority for the new government, since Guinea-Bissau faces a huge social and economic crisis. Civil servants have not been paid for close to a year and repeated strikes by unpaid teachers have prevented school pupils from making any progress in their education for the past two years. Aid contributions have dwindled as a result of Kumba Yala's erratic style of government and Guinea-Bissau is saddled with a massive external debt. President Rosa left on Thursday for a tour of West African states, warning that the international community needed to offer Guinea-Bissau stronger backing or there would be “unknown consequences”. Rosa started his tour in Ghana, whose president, John Kufuor of Ghana, is the current chairman of the Economic Community of West African States (Ecowas), a regional organisation that played a key role in persuading the Guinea-Bissau army to return the country rapidy to civilian government. Rosa was also due to meet President Olusegun Obasanjo of regional superpower Nigeria and President Mamadou Tandja of Niger, who currently heads the Economic and Monetary Union of West Africa (UEMOA). This is the regional authority which controls the CFA currency that Guinea-Bissau shares with several Francophone states. Rosa is expected to press UEMOA to extend his government an emergency loan to help meet pressing financial needs. The government has so far achieved only a limited response from other donors. The Portuguese news agency Lusa said China had offered the equivalent of four million euros. After meeting with Rosa last week, the UN chief representative in Guinea Bissau, David Stephen, said UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan had been urging donors to help Guinea-Bissau. But Stephen warned that funding would be conditional on evidence of good governance, the re-establishment of democracy and respect for human rights. Portugal and the European Union have both made sympathetic noises, but they have yet to come up with much in the way of concrete commitments. One diplomat said there was a danger Guinea-Bissau would relapse into chaos if donors waited too long. "The main problem is money and donors are being far too slow to help Guinea-Bissau at a particularly desperate time," he told IRIN, warning of "dangerous consequences" if donors failed to support the new government with fresh cash very soon. "If money is not forthcoming, I can't guarantee that in a few months time Guinea-Bissau will be as quiet and peaceful as it is now," he added. An early blow for Rosa's government has been the withdrawal of Dutch aid, which had amounted to over US$5 million annually in recent years. Dutch diplomats in neighbouring Senegal the Hague decided to stop funding Guinea-Bissau before the coup as part of a cutback on aid programmes that were wasteful, unproductive or marred by bad governance. Dutch aid to Zimbawe and Cambodia had been stopped for the same reason, they noted. While Guinea-Bissau has remained calm since the coup, the new authorities are still closely monitoring ousted President Kumba Yala and his supporters. According to the independent paper, Correio de Bissau, Kumba Yala has been put under close surveillance at home, as have several senior figures in his Social Renovation Party (PRS). Only close family members are now allowed to visit the deposed president at home.