BISSAU: Guinea-Bissau’s military junta adopted a 12-month transitional charter that bars the interim president and prime minister from running in the next elections, two weeks after officers staged a coup that suspended the constitution.
The 29-article charter, published on Tuesday, requires presidential and legislative elections to be held at the end of the one-year transitional period, with the polling date to be set by the transitional president. Army officers in Guinea-Bissau, branding themselves the Military High Command, toppled President Umaro Sissoco Embalo on November 26 and installed Maj. Gen. Horta Inta-a as interim president the following day.
Ilidio Vieira Te, a civil servant and former finance minister, was named prime minister a day later.
The coup came one day before the electoral commission was due to announce the results of presidential and legislative elections.
The Military High Command will control legal and institutional reforms during the transition, including drafting revisions to the suspended constitution, setting up a new Constitutional Court, changing regulations for political parties and overseeing the appointment of new electoral officials, according to the charter.
