Francisco Fadul

Francisco José Fadul (* December 15, 1953 ) was from 1998 to 2000 Prime Minister of Guinea- Bissau.

Political career

Fadul is of Lebanese descent and got a degree in law at the University of Lisbon.

On 3 December 1998, he became prime minister of a transitional government that would end the last few months of civil war. Fadul was political adviser to former Secretary of State, Chief of Staff of the Army and the current leader of the rebellion, Ansumane Mane. Manes dismissal as chief of staff in 1998 was the trigger for the civil war in June. This then ended in May 1999 with the overthrow of the ruling since 1980 president João Bernardo Vieira. Fadul's relationship with the deposed president, he had several times publicly criticized, was considered bad. In an interview with a Portuguese station he called to ask Vieira for human rights violations to justice.

His tenure ended on 19 February 2000, when after the victory Kumba Ialás in the presidential elections, a new government under the leadership of his party Partido para a Renovação Social ( PRS) was formed. The PRS had reached the first place in the parliamentary elections with 38 of the 102 seats.

Fadul went to Portugal and returned in March 2003 back to Guinea -Bissau. The Partido Unido Social Democrático ( PUSD ), founded in 1992 by former Prime Minister Victor Saúde Maria chose him as their President and reached for the parliamentary elections in March 2004, 17.6 % of the vote. With 17 of 100 seats it was the third strongest party in parliament. In the presidential elections on 19 June 2005 to which he was admitted as other prominent candidates only after a decision of the Supreme Court, he reached with 12,733 votes (2.85 %) to fourth place and was eliminated in the first round out. In the second round of the returned also from Portugal Vieira, who was back in the office since 1 October 2005, won.