Chei, Africans!  All in the name of power.  However, Bissau has done away
with their lunatic, what is Gambia waiting?  Please read on.


Kumba Yala Eyes Bissau Elections


The Independent (Banjul)

March 15, 2004
Posted to the web March 15, 2004

Momodou Gassama
Banjul

Kumba Yala the ousted president of Guinea Bissau has renewed interest in his
country's political future by revealing his intention to offer himself as a
presidential candidate in elections scheduled for the end of 2004.

The intention to throw his hat into the political ring comes days after the
ex-president was released from several months of house arrest after he was
overthrown in a military coup last year. "I am a Bissau-Guinean and I intend
to exercise my right to stand as a presidential candidate in the next
elections. The coup, which led to my ousting was not in anyway reflective of
the wishes of my countrymen and women about my leadership before the coup"
Mr. Yala, a man of academic accolades was quoted by close aides as saying.


Before the coup, which swept him from power, there has been a series of
developments in Bissau's administration, which provoked questions over his
style of leadership and general mental state. It culminated in critical
comments from members of Bissau's parliament who accused Yala of being
mentally deranged and therefore unfit to continue to govern the country. His
erratic spate of sackings had so incensed the political opposition that they
became convinced that an insane man was presiding over their country's
affairs.

Relevant Links

West Africa
Guinea Bissau



Meanwhile ordinary Bissau-Guineans have reacted with mixed feelings over
their ex-president's decision to re-enter the political fray. While some are
openly critical of the ex-president for declaring his interest in the
elections just days after he emerged from house arrests, others have
endorsed his latest decision, waxing lyrical about the beauty of democracy
allowing anyone the chance to contest in elections as long as they were
citizens and meet the requirements to contest in elections.

Before Yala's ascendancy to the presidency, Guinea-Bissau has been plagued
by intermittent political skirmishes, which at one time pitted the
president's backers in the army against renegades such as the late Ansumana
Manneh. However, Yala's three-year reign witnessed normalcy largely
returning to a country, whose recent history has been written with the blood
of insurrectionary violence, dating back to her fight for independence in
the 1970s.

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