Long wait ends with opposition victory and president’s withdrawal

The great doubt that has yet to be cleared up about the Guinean parliamentary elections was the cause of the postponement of the publication of the results, while all parties were already aware of them. On Tuesday, the date before the vote that would be the likely day for the release of the preliminary figures, the leader of the African Party for the Independence of Guinea-Bissau and Cape Verde (PAIGC) announced that the five-party coalition led by he received the most votes.

“The PAI Terra Ranka Platform knows and can ensure that it has won an absolute majority,” said Domingos Simões Pereira. At the time, he asked the National Elections Commission (CNE) to release the results as soon as possible to avoid “unforeseen consequences”. A day later, the CNE released a statement from the day before, justifying the delay in responding to party requests and processing regional data. And it promised publication, finally, on Thursday at noon. Speculation and rumors finally stopped when CNE president Mpabi Cabi said the PAI-Terra Ranka coalition had won 54 seats in parliament.

President Umaro Sissoco Embaló’s party, Madem G-15, elected 29 deputies; the Party for Social Renewal (PRS), 12; the Guinean Workers’ Party, six; and finally the United People’s Assembly, of the still Prime Minister Nuno Gomes Nabiam, one.

Regarding the 2019 elections, the PAIGC, which is now on the same list as the smaller Union for Change, Democratic Convergence Party, Guinean Democratic Movement and Social Democratic Party formations, registered an increase of seven delegates, enough not to rely on post -elections. cooking election. Despite taking 47% of the vote in previous parliamentary elections, the PAIGC ended up in the opposition after seeing the other three most voted votes combined.

The absolute majority of the PAI – Terra Ranka corresponded to a sharp drop in the two formations affiliated with the president’s party. The PRS lost nine delegates and the APU four. PRS leader Fernando Dias stated that the party “understood the message of the Guinean people”, which he said was “a rebuke to the company he was in”.

Only Madem-G15, which used the president’s image on posters during the campaign, can disguise its defeat by arguing that it elected two more deputies. The leader, Braima Camará, had said he would resign if he failed to win a majority. Now he said he will talk about his future in due course. Regarding the party, he said he has “total availability” to participate in the democratic game as leader of the opposition and, taking into account the results, ruled out the possibility of a coalition, saying that the PAI-Terra Ranka- platform “not nobody needs walking sticks”.

The issue had been raised by President Embaló who intervened in the campaign. He admitted that there was a post-election coalition between his party and the PAI-Terra Ranka alliance, but guaranteed that he would not nominate Domingos Simões Pereira – his opponent in the 2019 presidential disputes – as prime minister, after claiming that either the leader of the PAIGC or his number two, Geraldo Martins, had an accountability to justice, though he did not elaborate on the subject.

The hodgepodge that Embaló created was undone by himself. In a statement at the presidential palace, he refused to accept Simões Pereira’s appointment as head of government. “I know what I said, but a politician must step back for the good of the nation.” And he continued: “We let PAI – Terra Ranka prove to the people the program that the people have chosen and I am the best ally they can have. And all parties sanctioned by the people must know how to resist. There is not to be an alliance. The PAIGC, its alliance is Guinea-Bissau and I will be here to facilitate,” he said.

When Domingos Simões Pereira heard that the president was going to speak, he postponed the speech until today. He confined himself to saying that “Guinea has won” and that the country “opens a new page in history”.

[email protected]