Guinea-Bissau President Umaro Sissoco Embalo, whose election was contested by his opponents, announced on Wednesday, September 11, that he would not seek a second term after his current one until 2025. “I will not be a candidate in 2025. My wife advised me not to run. So I respect her advice.”he told reporters after the Council of Ministers.
This statement was unexpected because there had been movements in favour of his candidacy. The end of the current mandate and the date of the next presidential elections are controversial.
“I will not be replaced by a bandit”
Following the December 2019 election, Embalo, a 51-year-old reserve general who claimed victory, was appointed in February 2020 for five years to lead this small, Portuguese-speaking West African country mired in chronic instability. The international community eventually ratified his election. But the outcome of the vote gave rise to months of challenge, even after the inauguration, before the validation bodies.
Embalo’s main opponent, Domingos Simoes Pereira, has always refused to recognise his opponent’s victory, which he considers fraudulent. Embalo said on Wednesday that he was opposed to some of his rivals succeeding him. “It will not be Domingos Simoes Pereira, nor Nuno Gomes Nabiam, nor Braima Camara who will replace me”he said without specifying his comments. “I will not be replaced by a bandit”he added about these opponents.
Since its independence from Portugal in 1974, the country has experienced numerous coups and coup attempts. With the presidential elections of 2014, Guinea-Bissau embarked on the path towards a return to constitutional order; this did not protect it from the turbulence that continued under Mr. Embalo’s presidency.
Guinea-Bissau is one of the poorest countries in the world and considered one of the most corrupt. Instability and poverty favour the activities of drug traffickers, who use Guinea-Bissau’s geographic location on the Atlantic coast of Africa to transport cocaine from Latin America to Europe, with the alleged complicity of executives and military officers.
