President Umaro Sissoco Embalo has dissolved Guinea-Bissau’s parliament and said early parliamentary elections would be held this year to resolve a long-running political crisis.
Tensions between parliament and the presidency have gripped the West African state for months.
Embalo cited “persistent and unresolvable differences” with parliament, which he described as “a space for guerrilla politics and plotting”, in a statement on Monday.
“This political crisis has exhausted the capital of trust between the sovereign institutions,” he said. “I have decided to give the floor back to Guineans so that this year they can freely choose the parliament they wish to have.”
A presidential decree said parliamentary elections would be held on December 18. The former Portuguese colony of about two million people is notoriously unstable and has suffered four military coups since 1974, most recently in 2012.
In 2014, Guinea-Bissau decided to return to democracy, but it has enjoyed little stability since and the armed forces wield substantial clout.
Credit: Aljazeera.com
