Africa > West Africa > Guinea-bissau > Guinea-bissau Government Profile 2012

Guinea-Bissau: Guinea-bissau Government Profile 2012

2012/03/13

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Guinea-bissau
Government Profile 2012

President João Bernardo Vieira and General Batista Tagme Na Wai, the army chief of staff, were assassinated within 24 hours of each other on 1 and 2 March 2009. During the campaign for the presidential election on 28 June, three senior politicians were killed by the military in what some labelled a coup attempt. Independent commissions investigating the killings have not reported any conclusions. These events represent the main drivers for the AEO indicator for political hardening.
Despite the violence, the elections were peaceful. Malam Bacal Sanhá from the ruling Partido Africano da Independência da Guiné e Cabo Verde (PAIGC) was elected president in a second round on 26 July, defeating Kumba Yala, leader of the main opposition Partido da Renovação Social (PRS). Financed by the EU, African Union (AU) and the Comunidade dos Países de Língua Portuguesa (CPLP), the election was declared free and transparent by 150 observers. However, voter turnout was only 61% compared with 82% in the November 2008 elections.
Sanhá comes from the liberation movement and is seen as a consensus figure who will bring stability. The next presidential election is set for 2014.
Since 2006 the Bijagos islands have served as a transhipment point for Latin American drug cartels moving cocaine to Europe. Cracking down on trafficking is almost impossible as the islands have no police and no communications or surveillance equipment. Furthermore, Guinea-Bissau has no prisons or forensics laboratories, the detention centre in Bissau has no guards and no administrative staff, the few courts are overburdened and the law that they apply too complex to apply consistently. Trafficking poses a serious challenge to stability and governance as it has exacerbated corruption in the government and armed forces. Sanhá has declared the issue a top priority for his administration.
The EU is leading a major security sector reform which includes reinserting ex-liberation movement combatants into society; retiring some 1 500 soldiers and security forces and creating a pension fund; improving the military barracks; and supporting revised security laws. Guinean authorities have already passed four security-linked reform laws but ten have yet to go through. The UN Office on Drugs and Crime will invest USD 900 000 to rehabilitate two detention centres in Mansôa and Bafatá and, if there is additional funding, a prison in Bissau by July 2010.
After years of low-level tensions at the border with Senegal’s Casamance Region over control of land with potential oil reserves and the harbouring of Senegalese separatist rebels, the two countries signed an accord in October 2009 which established a Mixed Co-operation Commission to police the region.
Teachers went on strike at the start of the 2008/9 school year over nine months of back pay. Schools only opened in December.
 

Government type: 

Republic

Administrative divisions: 

9 regions (regioes, singular - regiao); Bafata, Biombo, Bissau, Bolama, Cacheu, Gabu, Oio, Quinara, Tombali; note - Bolama may have been renamed Bolama/Bijagos

Independence: 

24 September 1973 (declared); 10 September 1974 (from Portugal)

National holiday: 

Independence Day, 24 September (1973)

Constitution: 

16 May 1984; amended 4 May 1991, 4 December 1991, 26 February 1993, 9 June 1993, and in 1996

Legal system: 

based on French civil law; accepts compulsory ICJ jurisdiction

Suffrage: 

18 years of age; universal

Legislative branch: 

unicameral National People's Assembly or Assembleia Nacional Popular (100 seats; members are elected by popular vote to serve four-year terms) elections: last held 16 November 2008 (next to be held 2012) election results: percent of vote by party - PAIGC 49.8%, PRS 25.3%, PRID 7.5%, PND 2.4%, AD 1.4%, other parties 13.6%; seats by party - PAIGC 67, PRS 28, PRID 3, PND 1, AD 1

Judicial branch: 

Supreme Court or Supremo Tribunal da Justica (consists of nine justices appointed by the president and serve at his pleasure; final court of appeals in criminal and civil cases); Regional Courts (one in each of nine regions; first court of appeals for Sectoral Court decisions; hear all felony cases and civil cases valued at more than $1,000); 24 Sectoral Courts (judges are not necessarily trained lawyers; they hear civil cases valued at less than $1,000 and misdemeanor criminal cases)

Political parties and leaders : 

African Party for the Independence of Guinea-Bissau and Cape Verde or PAIGC [Carlos GOMES Junior]; Party for Social Renewal or PRS [Kumba YALA]; Democratic Alliance or AD [Victor MANDINGA]; Democratic Social Front or FDS [Rafael BARBOSA]; Electoral Union or UE [Joaquim BALDE]; Guinea-Bissau Civic Forum/Social Democracy or FCGSD [Antonieta Rosa GOMES]; Guinea-Bissau Democratic Party or PDG; Guinea-Bissau Socialist Democratic Party or PDSG [Serifo BALDE]; Labor and Solidarity Party or PST [Lancuba INDJAI]; New Democracy Party or PND; Party for Democratic Convergence or PCD [Victor MANDINGA]; Party for Renewal and Progress or PRP; Progress Party or PP; Republican Party for Independence and Development or PRID [Aristides GOMES]; Union for Change or UM [Amine SAAD]; Union of Guinean Patriots or UPG [Francisca VAZ]; United Platform or UP (coalition formed by PCD, FDS, FLING, and RGB-MB); United Popular Alliance or APU; United Social Democratic Party or PUSD [Frnacisco FADUL]

Political pressure groups and leaders: 

NA

International organization participation: 

ACP, AfDB, AU, CPLP, ECOWAS, FAO, FZ, G-77, IBRD, ICAO, ICCt (signatory), ICRM, IDA, IDB, IFAD, IFC, IFRCS, ILO, IMF, IMO, Interpol, IOC, IOM, ITSO, ITU, ITUC, MIGA, NAM, OIC, OIF, UN, UNCTAD, UNESCO, UNIDO, Union Latina, UNWTO, UPU, WADB (regional), WAEMU, WFTU, WHO, WIPO, WMO, WTO

Flag description: 

two equal horizontal bands of yellow (top) and green with a vertical red band on the hoist side; there is a black five-pointed star centered in the red band; uses the popular pan-African colors of Ethiopia