STP News: Opposition chief Rafael Branco to be PM at head of new coalition govt
Sao Tome, June 11 (Lusa) - The leader of Sao Tome and Principe’s main MLSTP opposition, Rafael Branco, has been chosen by his party as the islands’ new prime minister and the country’s main political forces will now work to choose a cabinet to end three weeks of uncertainty in the archipelago, officials and party sources said Wednesday.
MLSTP secretary general José Viegas told Lusa party managers had decided Tuesday evening to nominate Branco as Sao Tome’s incoming government chief after President Fradique de Menezes invited the opposition party to form a government.
Branco, who has previously held the energy and foreign affairs portfolios in Sao Tome, has begun talks with the leaders of the archipelago’s biggest party, the MDFM, as well as the smaller ADI and PCD on the makeup of the Gulf of Guinea microstate’s new cabinet, José Viegas said.
The final composition of Branco’s cabinet, to be drawn from the ranks of Sao Tome’s four main parties, will be known in “the coming days” and the incoming government is likely to be sworn in early next week, added Viegas.
De Menezes’ decision to ask the MLSTP to form a new executive came after days of talks between Sao Tome’s four main political forces on the creation of a unity government, as well as the possibility legislative polls ahead of those scheduled for 2010.
During the four-way talks led by Sao Tome’s president, some parties had advocated early polls. The ADI, lead by outgoing prime minister Patrice Trovoada, whose coalition executive collapsed last month in a no-confidence vote, had insisted on dissolution of parliament and a ballot within three months.
The MLSTP and smaller PCD, which abandoned Sao Tome’s alliance executive in May, joined forces to torpedo Trovoada’s alliance government May 20. Both parties had called for a new government with a limited mandate then early polls.
But President de Menezes said Tuesday that as three of Sao Tome’s main parliamentary forces now oppose early elections, in addition to lack of funds for the ballot and “the majority of the population not expressing interest in new elections”, the new government will serve until scheduled elections in two years’ time.
