Maybe my luck wasn't so good... .75 bid
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BISSAU, Nov 19 (Reuters) - Guinea-Bissau's military junta, which shares power with a transitional civilian government, has backed away from suggestions that it will retain a supervisory role for 10 years after November 28 multi-party elections.
Prime Minister Francisco Fadul, speaking on behalf of junta leader and co-president Ansumane Mane, told a news conference on Thursday evening that the junta had not written a so-called "magna carta" letter outlining its future role.
"This letter is contrary to the principles that the military junta upholds," Junta spokesman Samora Induta told the same new conference, introducing Fadul and saying that he would speak on behalf of Mane.
"The military junta is not the author of this letter," Fadul said. "The junta is not going to meddle with politics in Guinea-Bissau."
The letter triggered vocal protests from politicians and members of the public alike.
Mane, who led a revolt against elected President Joao Bernardo Vieira in June 1998, was on an official visit to Cape Verde, another former Portuguese colony in West Africa.
Vieira and Mane, who took up arms after Vieira sacked him as army chief-of-staff, agreed a transitional peace deal after fighting emptied the capital Bissau of most of its population.
The elections are the culmination of the transition. Junta loyalists toppled Vieira in May following a dispute over the implementation of the transition.
Neither Fadul nor Induta gave any indication of the future status of the junta after the elections. Mane's co-president, Malan Bacai Sanha, is one of 12 presidential candidates. Neither Mane nor Vieira, who is in exile, are standing. Thirteen parties will contest the parliamentary poll. |
