Guinea-Bissau’s President Joao Bernardo Vieira said yesterday he would name a coalition government in the West African nation to replace the administration of political rival Carlos Gomes Junior. After months of political tensions following Vieira’s election in July, the president dismissed the Prime Minister and his cabinet by decree on Friday saying the move would protect national stability and economic growth.

Gomes Junior’s ruling party had recently lost its parliamentary majority with the defection of some 14 legislators to a coalition of opposition parties, but the cabinet’s dismissal caused many ordinary citizens to fear a return to decades of political instability.

“I will name a government of national unity,” Vieira told RFI radio. He said he would not dissolve Parliament and call new legislative elections. Asked if Gomes Junior’s party would form part of the new government, Vieira replied: “Of course, they are represented in Parliament.”

Vieira, a former military ruler who was ousted in a civil war in 1999, said it had become impossible for him to work with Gomes Junior. The ex-Prime Minister, elected in March 2004, had accused Vieira of massive electoral fraud in beating the his party’s presidential candidate Malam Bacai Sanha, and he refused to recognise the result.

Since independence in 1974, the former Portuguese colony has been driven by a series of coups and uprisings. It remains one of the poorest countries in the world, with most of its 1.4 million people working as subsistence farmers. Cashew nuts, palm kernels and cotton are the main cash crops.