Failed presidential candidate to head G.Bissau transition

BISSAU (AFP) - Failed presidential hopeful Manuel Serifo Nhamadjo was on Thursday named head of Guinea-Bissau's transition government which is set to rule for two years, said a spokesman for the opposition.

Vitor Pereira, a spokesman for opposition parties which made a deal with the junta to dissolve government and set up a two-year transition after an April 12 coup, told AFP the former parliamentary speaker was chosen "by consensus".

Nhamadjo, an ally of deceased president Malam Bacai Sanha, broke away from the ruling party to run in the election after then-prime minister Carlos Gomes was chosen as its presidential candidate.

He placed third in a first round of voting with 15.75 percent.

Gomes was the leading candidate ahead of an April 29 run-off before the electoral process was aborted by the latest military coup in the chronically unstable west African nation.

Soldiers justify their takeover over government's growing reliance on a large contingent of Angolan troops which observers say were seen as a personal protection force due to regular attacks on ruling leaders.

Gomes and other top officials including interim president Raimundo Pereira are being detained by the soldiers.

His ruling party has been excluded from the deal in what it said Thursday was the "irresponsible, undemocratic attitude of certain politicians hiding behind the military to access power."

The National Transition Council, which will oversee the transition will be headed by Braima Sori Djalo of the main opposition Party for Social Renewal, said Pereira.