Army warns poll candidates
2009-07-15 19:26
Bissau - Guinea-Bissau's powerful army on Wednesday warned the candidates in the heated second round of the presidential election to stop "verbal assaults" which could trigger disorder and instability.
"The armed forces, as an institution of the Republic, are worried about the verbal assaults by the politicians" on the campaign trail and in the media, the army said in statement.
It told the two candidates "to abstain from making speeches that could provoke disorder" and warned it would not "tolerate any acts that put at risk" the peace and stability of the former Portuguese colony of 1.3 million people.
Guinea-Bissau voters go to the polls on July 26 to choose a new president between Malam Bacai Sanha and Kumba Yala, both former heads of state.
The army's warning came after Yala on Tuesday accused his opponent's ruling party of causing the country's problems, including the recent assassination of the president.
Joao Bernardo Vieira, who ruled Guinea-Bissau for much of the past quarter century, was killed by soldiers on March 2 in an apparent revenge for the death of army chief, General Batista Tagme Na Waie, in a bomb attack.
Yala's time in office between 2000 and 2003 was marked by wide fiscal mismanagement and sweeping arrests of opposition figures until he was brought down in a coup.
Sanha served as interim president from June 1999 to May 2000 and was candidate for the long-dominant African Party for the Independence of Guinea and Cape Verde (PAIGC), which already controls 67 of the 100 seats in the national assembly.
- SAPA