afrol News, 29 March - The Electoral Commission of Guinea-Bissau was not able to finalise Sunday's legislative elections due to high turnout and chaotic conditions on several poll stations. Voters will be able to return to the poll stations tomorrow, Tuesday. Otherwise, the multiparty poll exercise has gone ahead peacefully and orderly.

The National Electoral Commission yesterday announced that irregularities at many poll stations had led to its decision to add another voting day to the poll. Today it was further announced that voters that still had not visited the poll stations should do so tomorrow, not today, as originally announced.

Poor organisation of the long-awaited legislative elections had led to a late opening of many poll stations throughout the country and in particular in the capital, Bissau. Ballot boxes and papers had not yet been supplied by the Electoral Commission. Some poll stations even failed opening at all on Sunday. Others rapidly run out of ballot papers.

Already on Sunday afternoon, the Electoral Commission in a radio broadcast announced that poll stations would not close on Sunday until everybody queuing to vote had been let to the ballot box. Later on, it was announced that poll stations would be open also on Monday, while their reopening was postponed until Tuesday in a radio broadcast today.

Higino Cardoso, Vice-President of the Electoral Commission, today announced the postponement, saying the Commission first needed to get an overview of what had went wrong on Sunday. Mr Cardoso said the "registered irregularities" yesterday needed to be looked into so that the last poll day could outweigh yesterday's "confusion".

While the organisation of the poll so far has been chaotic, the Bissauan electorate is reported to have streamed to the poll stations on Sunday, and a large turnout is therefore expected. People were reported to wait patiently in front of poll stations that were opening late.

The capacities of the Electoral Commission have been a returning issue of discussions in Guinea-Bissau. Ex-President Kumba Yala on several occasions had postponed the legislative elections, referring to logistic problems. According to statements made by Mr Yala last year, the Electoral Commission was not fit to organise fair and orderly elections and urgently needed international funding to be able to do so.

President Yala on the other hand was heavily criticised for being unwilling to organise democratic elections and his alleged inability to organise timely elections was part of the reason given for the military coup deposing him in September last year. One of the first promises of the new Bissau regime was the rapid organisation of legislative polls. Most of the poll's costs were paid for by foreign donors.

International election observers have also turned up in great numbers to assure the poll is free and fair. The Community of Portuguese Speaking Countries has sent a large delegation of observers led by Ramos Horta, the Foreign Minister of East Timor. The election observers have not yet commented on yesterday's chaotic situation, but are expected to produce written reports after the poll is finished.

The ongoing legislative elections in Guinea-Bissau are the first step in the troubled country's return to democratically elected governing institutions after last year's coup. Within one year, a presidential poll has to be arranged.

The poll is followed with great interest by Bissauans and the international community as it is seen as a possible turning point in Guinea-Bissau's sorrow history of political chaos and economic degeneration. The UN's Special Representative for Guinea-Bissau, David Stephen, last week commented that the elections were "a crucial moment" in the country's history and noted that "now, optimism has come back to the country."

By staff writers

© afrol News

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