DAKAR, Senegal (AP) — A long-awaited election to fill Guinea-Bissau’s national legislature got underway on Sunday, more than a year after the West African nation’s president dissolved parliament.
According to the Center for Democracy and Development, an African human rights organization, about one million voters registered to elect more than 100 MPs from the six parties with active seats in the National People’s Assembly.
Tiny Guinea-Bissau gained independence from Portugal nearly five decades ago. The country has faced frequent political turmoil since then, including several coups.
President Umaro Sissoko Embalo, a former army general, took office after he was declared the winner of the December 2019 runoff election. He narrowly escaped an attempted coup in February 2022, when assailants armed with machine guns and AK-47s stormed the government palace.
Analysts say that since taking office, Embalo has cracked down on civil liberties, while government bodies have lost significant independence. He dissolved parliament in May 2022 and postponed legislative elections scheduled for the following December.
Lucia Bird Ruiz Benitez de Lugo, director of the West Africa Observatory at the Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime, said since his controversial inauguration in February 2020, Mbalo has tightened his grip on power.
“These elections are crucial in determining how much support the ruling party gets in parliament,” he said. “They will be struck by how isolated a president with strained relations with the powerful military will be for the rest of the 18 months. of his tenure.”
After the declaration of the results in the coming days, the results of the elections held on Sunday were expected to be contested
