DILI, 06 November 2019 (TATOLI) – The Timor-Leste government has promised funds to support run-off elections in fellow former Portuguese colony, Guinea Bissau, which is hoped to break a political stalemate in the country.
Timor’s Council of Ministers today approved a proposal from Prime Minister, Taur Matan Ruak, for funds to support the November 24 poll.
“We will provide support to the Guinea Bissau elections in order to stabilise the country, which is a close friend of Timor-Leste,” said the Minister for the Presidency of the Council Of Ministers, Hermenegildo Augusto Cabral Perreira.
Minister Perreira declined to say exactly how much funding Timor-Leste would provide.
Guinea-Bissau achieved its independence from Portugal one year before Timor-Leste, in 1975, but its contemporary history has been riven with coup d’etats and financial instability.
The November 24 Presidential poll comes at a crucial time for the CPLP member state. The government was deposed in August 2015, plunging the country into a political stalemate. As Reuters reported this week, the country’s newly-appointed Prime Minister Faustino Fudut Imbali resigned on Friday, following threats from West African neighbours. He had served in the role for just 11 days.
At Wednesday’s meeting, the council also voted to appoint the Secretary of State for Civil Protection, Alexandrinho de Araújo, as the interim Minister of the Interior.
“The aim of the full powers given to the Secretary of State of Civil Protection … is to sign a Sea Management agreement with the Republic of Indonesia,” Minister Perreira said.
Journalist: Hortencio Sanchez
Editors: Xisto Freitas; Robert Baird
Translation: Nelia Borges
Link for tetum version: http://www.tatoli.tl/2019/11/07/km-aprova-proposta-deliberasaun-apoiu-finanseiru-ba-guine-bissau/
