Guinea-Bissau junta releases opposition leader, vows inclusive government
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A supporter of presidential candidate Domingos Simoes Pereira rides a bicycle decorated with PAIGC flag, ahead of Sunday's presidential election in Bissau, Guinea-Bissau November 22, 2019. Picture taken November 22, 2019. REUTERS/Christophe Van Der Perre
Feb 2 - The junta that seized power in Guinea-Bissau in a coup in November has vowed to bring the revolutionary PAIGC party into government and has released its leader, former Prime Minister Domingos Simoes Pereira, though he remains under house arrest.
The moves are an apparent attempt to appease the West African regional bloc ECOWAS, which has suspended Guinea-Bissau and demanded a quick transition to civilian rule.
Army officers in Guinea-Bissau, branding themselves the Military High Command, toppled President Umaro Sissoco Embalo on November 26 and installed Major-General Horta Inta-a as interim president the following day.
The coup, the ninth in West and Central Africa in five years, disrupted presidential and legislative elections.
In a letter addressed to ECOWAS and distributed to journalists over the weekend, Inta-a announced plans to form an "inclusive" transitional government that would allocate three ministerial portfolios to the PAIGC, or the African Party for the Independence of Guinea and Cape Verde.
Inta-a said three portfolios would also go to the Party for Social Renewal (PRS) headed by Fernando Dias, who was seen as the strongest challenger to Embalo in the November election.He also said all political prisoners would be released.
The junta announced on Friday that Pereira of the PAIGC, who had been detained since the coup, had been released but would remain under house arrest on suspicion of economic crimes.
Sources close to the junta told Reuters on Friday that Dias had left the Nigerian embassy where he had sought shelter and was no longer facing arrest.
Neither Pereira nor Dias could be reached for comment.
In the days after the coup, ECOWAS called on the junta to restore constitutional order and to allow the electoral process to resume. But the electoral commission said it was unable to complete the vote after armed men seized ballots and destroyed servers storing the results.
Last month a presidential decree scheduled new presidential and legislative elections for December 6. REUTERS
