The Supreme Court in Guinea-Bissau has upheld the nomination of Prime Minister Baciro Dja, bolstering President Jose Mario Vaz in a power struggle with a rival former prime minister.
Vaz appointed Dja in May after sacking then Prime Minister Carlos Correia, a move that further divided the ruling PAIGC party and which Correia denounced as a "constitutional coup d'etat". "The legal proceedings brought by the PAIGC (against the nomination) are null and void and therefore inadmissible," the court ruled late on Friday, according to a decision broadcast on local radio. "The presidential decree that appointed Baciro Dja as head the government of Guinea-Bissau is indeed constitutional."
Vaz sacked Correia and his government on May 12, saying they had proved incapable of managing a months-long political crisis, caused partly by the overlapping duties of the president and prime minister in a semi-presidential system. A bank bailout that was condemned by donors as ill-advised and serving only the ruling elite has prompted the IMF to remove budget support, triggering economic meltdown and a gaping budget deficit.
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