Guinea-Bissau President Joao Bernardo Vieira dismissed the government of political rival Prime Minister Carlos Gomes Junior, citing the need to maintain stability in the West African nation, Reuters reported. Security was stepped up around government ministries in the capital Bissau after Vieira, a former military ruler elected in July, announced his decision in a decree late on Friday saying that tension between state institutions could threaten economic recovery. After months of political tensions following Gomes Junior's refusal to accept Vieira's election victory, the prime minister publicly accepted his dismissal. Gomes Junior's PAIGC party won legislative elections in March 2004 but recently lost its parliamentary majority when 14 legislators defected to a cross-party coalition, the Development Convergence Forum. "I was expecting the dissolution of my government," he told journalists, adding he would continue to serve as a legislator. "My government should continue to function until the investiture of the next one, but access to government buildings has been blocked by a security operation." Gomes Junior said the removal of his government could jeopardize talks with the International Monetary Fund and international aid donors.
