The head of the EU’s electoral mission in Guinea Bissau said Saturday on the eve of a parliamentary poll that “everything is ready” for the ballot, seen as an important step to stabilise the country.
Johan Van Hecke hailed the “remarkable work” of the country’s national electoral commission and said there has been progress from the 2005 presidential poll, especially in terms of logistical operations.”The staff at the national electoral commission and the people in the regions have done some remarkable work,” Van Hecke said.
“We’ve toured the country (and) we think it’s ready for the elections.”The international community has sent more than 150 observers, 50 with the EU mission, and spent more than eight million dollars (six million euros) to help organise the vote. Guinea Bissau has seen drug trading flourish recently, 10 years after the end of its 1998-1999 civil war.
Ranked as one of the world’s poorest nations, it has become a major transit point for cocaine coming from Latin America en route to the lucrative European markets.Van Hecke however criticised the government and parliament for refusing to follow the EU mission’s recommendations, especially their decision not to grant the electoral commission financial independence. He also expressed concern over the lack of clarity as to what would happen in the event of a contentious result.”It’s not exactly clear whether the candidates should launch their legal challenges with the national electoral commission or the Supreme Court,” he said.
Some 540,000 people are expected to go to the polls Sunday.International experts say the country, which lists peanut exports as its biggest source of income, has become Africa’s first “narco-state”: taken over and controlled by drug cartels with nonexistent law enforcement.
Since presidential elections in 2005 the West African country has been ruled by Joao Bernardo Veira, a former army general who had been in power for nearly 20 years, from 1980 until 1999, when he was ousted in a coup.Experts say that the poor and politically unstable country does not have strong enough state institutions to take on the international drugs cartels.
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