Citizens of Portuguese Speaking Countries Get Right to Vote in Guinea Bissau

Nationals from Portuguese-speaking countries have now got the right to vote in Guinea Bissau, the Bissau Guinean ambassador at the Community of Portuguese-speaking Countries (CPLP), Apoliar Mendes de Carvalhio said on Tuesday.

Indeed the Bissau-Guinean MPs have unanimously passed the bill on the status of Portuguese-speaking citizens which was tabled in Parliament by the government of Prime Minister Martinho Ndafa Cabi.

“The passage by MPs of this bill thus grants them the right to take part in elections while helping in the free movement of goods and people within the Portuguese-speaking area”, he said.

Guinea Bissau, chairing the Portuguese-speaking countries’ heads of state and governments summit since July 2006 is the first state to ratify this accord recently signed between the eight countries in this community.

In addition to a right to vote, this accord also gives nationals from Portuguese speaking countries the right to settle in the community.

The implementation of this accord however may pose some problems for Portugal which belongs to the European Union due to the restrictions imposed by Brussels on nationals from southern countries mainly Africans in a bid to reduce the migratory influx to Europe.

Apart from Portugal, a former colonial power, CPLP groups Guinea Bissau, Cape Verde, Angola, Mozambique, Sao Tome & Principe, East Timor and Brazil.

Source African Press Agency

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