Advertisement

Guinea Bissau President Embalo's ruling party loses legislative polls

Thursday June 08 2023
embalo

Guinea Bissau's President Umaro Sissoco Embalo who heads the ruling party Movement for the Democratic Alternative. PHOTO | LUDOVIC MARIN | AFP

By ARNALDO VIEIRA

Guinea Bissau President Umaro Sissoco Embaló’s Movement for the Democratic Alternative (MADEM-G15) has lost out on a crucial parliamentary polls in the country, the latest data from Sunday’s legislative elections showed.

According to the country’s National Electoral Commission (CNE), the polls were the seventh legislative elections where 20 political parties and two electoral coalitions contested.

With this provisional result, it means MADEM-G15 will be unable to appoint a prime minister and form a government for the former Portuguese colony.

Read: Guinea Bissau president names new government

According to CNE, the Inclusive Alliance Platform (PAI) - Terra Ranka, which brings together the PAIGC, the Union for Change, the Democratic Convergence Party, the Guinean Democratic Movement, and the Social Democratic Party, won the legislative election in Guinea-Bissau.

The Sunday’s legislative polls were initially scheduled for December 18, 2022.

Advertisement

The first multiparty elections were held in 1994. In recent years, the country’s elections have been marked by problems with voters’ registration and successive postponements of dates.

Guinea Bissau is a West African country with a population of less than two million people.

More than two-thirds of the population lives below the poverty line, according to a World Bank report issued in May 2013.

The provisional results show that PAI-Terra Ranka won 54 seats, out of the 102 that make up the parliament while MADEM-G15 got 29 seats.

In third place is the Social Renewal Party (PRS) which elected 12 MPs for the parliament, while the Guinean Workers Party (PTG), one of the newest political parties, managed to get 6 seats and the Prime Minister Nuno Gomes Nabian APU-PDGB got one seat.

PAIGC leader Domingos Simões Pereira leads the coalition PAI - Terra Ranka.

Last month, President Embaló said that he would not appoint Mr Simões Pereira his long political opponent as prime minister.

Read: Guinea-Bissau ex-PM banned from leaving country

The ruling African Party for the Independence of Guinea and Cape Verde (PAIGC) won the 2019 legislative elections with 47 of 102 parliamentary seats and formed a coalition government with the United People Assembly- Guinea Bissau Democratic Party (APU-PDGB).

In May 2022, President Umaro Sissoco Embaló dissolved the parliament and the government, called for legislative polls and pointed his finger to MPs accusing them of turning the parliament into a space for "political guerrilla and conspiracy".

President Embaló only is the second leader to dissolve the parliament after Kumba Yala in November 2002.

The country has since been led by Embaló’s MADEM-G15, in a Presidential initiative government party.

MADEM-G15 is currently dealing with strikes of civil servants from social sectors and the increase in the high cost of living.

Advertisement