General Horta Inta-A made the appointment of Finance Minister Ilidio Vieira Te as the new leader of West Africa in a decree dated Friday.
Recommended Stories
list of 3 itemsend of list
Inta-A told Te during a brief swearing-in ceremony that the people of Guinea-Bissau “expect a lot” of their new leaders, adding that he hoped the new military administration and the prime minister would continue to “work hand in hand.”
Both Te and Inta-A are close to Embalo, the deposed president, and both Inta-A, who sworn in as Guinea-Bissau’s transitional leader on Thursday.
Te previously held positions in his government and Embalo’s party’s campaign on the presidential election last Sunday.
The announcement on Friday comes just days after military personnel declared they had “total control” of the nation during a televised address on the eve of the anticipated release of provisional election results.
Embalo had been vying for re-election against Fernando Dias, his main rival. Prior to the results, which have not yet been released, both candidates had declared victory.
Guinea-Bissau’s military coup, one of several since it gained its independence from Portugal in 1974, has received widespread condemnation from regional and international leaders.
Guinea-Bissau was suspended by the African Union on Friday shortly after the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) froze Guinea-Bissau out of “all decision-making bodies” with immediate effect.
The United Nations’ Secretary-General, Antonio Guterres, also criticized the military’s “unacceptable violation of democratic principles,” while calling for “a quick return to the constitutional order and the resumption of the electoral process.”
Embalo has taken refuge there after the coup, but Senegal’s prime minister has since called for the electoral process to continue. He has condemned the putsch as a “sham.”
On Friday, Ousmane Sonko told lawmakers, “The]electoral commission must be able to declare the winner.”
Dias, the opposition candidate, claimed on Thursday that he believed Embalo had won the presidential election on Sunday. He claimed that Embalo planned the power grab to stop him from taking office.
Goodluck Jonathan, a former leader of a West African elections observer organization who was in Guinea-Bissau at the time of the coup, also charged Embalo of staging a “ceremonial coup” to maintain control of the country.
Jonathan told reporters, “A military doesn’t take over governments and permit the president who is currently in office to speak at press conferences and announce that he has been arrested.”
Capital is redeemed with calm.
At least 18 people, including government officials, judges, and opposition politicians, were arbitrarily detained during the coup, according to UN human rights chief Volker Turk on Friday, and the majority of them are still being held incommunicado.
According to Turk, “I am deeply alarmed by reports of human rights violations in Guinea-Bissau following the coup, including arbitrary arrests and detentions of government officials and opposition leaders, as well as threats against and intimidation of media houses and journalists,” the statement said.
He demanded the return of constitutional order and the immediate release of all those held.
According to Turk, “the military authorities must make sure they fully respect everyone’s fundamental rights, including the right to peaceful assembly.”
As a result of the new military rulers’ lifting of an overnight curfew that had been in place during the coup, calm resumed in Bissau’s capital on Friday.
After the army’s checkpoints were lifted, people and vehicles were circling through Bissau’s streets. Additionally, commercial banks and the main stock exchange and markets in the city’s outlying districts have reopened.
Source: Aljazeera
Leave a Reply