Guinea Bissau President Jose Mario Vaz named a new prime minister on Thursday in a bid to end a power vacuum after he dismissed Domingos Simoes Pereira last week, according to a presidential decree read on state radio.
The new Prime Minister Baciro Dja was sworn in just hours after he was appointed.
The appointment of Baciro Dja was condemned by some members of the ruling party which has a slender majority in the national assembly with 57 members of parliament out of 102. The party has called for a public protest in the coastal capital Bissau.
The African Party for the Independence of Guinea and Cape Verde (PAIGC) “will never accept a constitutional coup d’état. We will demonstrate this later during our protest,” said party official Fernando Saldhana.
“I am going to open candid and sincere dialogue to find a lasting solution for Guinea-Bissau,” said Dja, 39, after being sworn in during a ceremony in capital city Bissau.
Last week, the European Union said the 2014 elections had brought the country “back on a path of democratic governance” and warned that the recent developments put at risk “the positive dynamics of reconstruction and democratic consolidation”.
The stability ushered in by last year’s election led the EU to pledge 160 million euros ($175 million) in aid in March to bolster democracy and accelerate economic recovery.
And in May, the International Monetary Fund also hailed the country’s progress on economic reform, saying it had become eligible for a $23.9 million loan.