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Guinea-Bissau president names new PM but old one refuses to go

Reuters

   BISSAU - Guinea-Bissau President Jose Mario Vaz named a new prime
   minister on Tuesday but his sacked predecessor refused to step down,
   intensifying a bitter power struggle between Vaz and the ruling party
   weeks ahead of a presidential election.

   Vaz, who is running for again in the Nov. 24 poll, dissolved the
   government late on Monday saying the political situation was
   undermining the normal functioning of state institutions in the West
   African country.

   It has suffered repeated bouts of instability since it became
   independent from Portugal in 1974, including nine coups or attempted
   coups and a surge in cocaine trafficking from South America that has
   been linked to senior military officials.

   The country has been largely peaceful since Vaz came to power in a 2014
   election that followed a coup two years earlier.

   But he has repeatedly clashed over the balance of power in the
   semi-presidential system with a string of prime ministers put forward
   by the African Party of the Independence of Guinea and Cape Verde
   (PAIGC), which controls a majority in parliament.

   In a decree on Tuesday, Vaz named as prime minister Faustino Fudut
   Imbali, who served in the same post from 2000-2003 and represents the
   small Manifest Party of the People.

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