In what could be described as a boost to the peace and reconciliation efforts in Guinea Bissau after the landmark July 26 presidential run-off election, veteran opposition leader of the Social Renewal Party, Kumba Yala has stated that their main focus and interest today is to give priority to peace in their country.
The veteran politician was speaking to a group of journalists at State House in Banjul yesterday afternoon, shortly after his closed door meeting with the Gambian leader, His Excellency Sheikh Professor Alhaji Dr Yahya Jammeh. Yala, an ex-president of the former West African Portuguese colony who was on a private visit to The Gambia told journalists about their commitment to foster dialogue and consultations with a view to ensuring continuous peace, democracy and development in Guinea Bissau, a country that is currently witnessing fresh democratic dispensation under President Malang Bachai Sanha.
The SRP leader went on to indicate that he and the president have been friends for a very long time, saying ?we share the same political view in defence of Africa and its democracy in our own way, especially based on the realities existing in each country,? he stated. This, he continued, is what they are doing to exchange ideas from time to time and to find ways and means of achieving common objectives, he concluded.
It can be recalled that Kumba Yala contested under the banner of his Social Renewal Party in the first round of the June 28 2009 presidential election in Guinea Bissau. However, as no candidate won a majority in the first round of election, Yala went into the run-off poll on the 26 July, 2009, contesting against Malang Bachai Sanhna (now president), of the governing African Party for the Independence of Guinea and Cape Verde. The peaceful election that was described as free and fair by observers saw Sanha sweeping the polls by 63 percent of the votes, allowing Kumba Yala to consoled himself with only 36 percent of the votes.
That political development has gone a long way in restoring peace, democracy, normalcy and hope among not only Bissau Guineans but as well as goodwill friends of the country. Going by the words of Kumba Yala, it is worthwhile to state that the Bissau-Guineans are indeed ready to put the past behind in the interest of national unity and have also heeded to the advice of President Jammeh, who has since championed the peace and reconstruction process of Bissau, resulting to the current political dispensation.
source: daily observer
Submitted by F.C. Malang
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