ECOWAS delegation visits Guinea Bissau to resolve crisis Members of the regional West African bloc ECOWAS visit Guinea Bissau to resolve political crisis. Guinea-Bissau's President Jose Mario Vaz rejected a proposal by parliament for his rival and former premier to lead the next government. The move extends the political deadlock gripping the tiny West African country since 2015 when Vaz fired Domingos Simoes Pereira from his prime minister's post. Vaz had invited the PAIGC party, which controls a majority in parliament, to name a new prime minister as a way to end the crisis, but he rejected the party's repeated proposal of Pereira. IMAGES AND SOUNDBITES