Guinea-Bissau’s electoral commission says coup destroyed election results | Elections News

Major-General Horta Inta-a was sworn in as the new transitional president on 27 November.

Guinea-Bissau’s electoral commission has said it can no longer complete the November 23 presidential election after armed men seized ballots, tally sheets and computers from its offices and destroyed servers storing the results.

Army officers seized power on November 26, a day before the commission was due to announce provisional results of the hotly contested vote. During the takeover, several buildings including the Election Commission headquarters were attacked.

“We do not have the material and logistical conditions to comply with the electoral process,” Idrissa Jallow, a senior electoral commission official, said in a statement on Tuesday.

“They confiscated the computers of all the 45 staff members present at the commission that day,” he said. He said tally sheets have been seized from all zones and the server on which the results were stored has been destroyed.

“It is impossible to complete the electoral process without tally sheets from the regions,” Jallow said.

Major-General Horta Inta-e was sworn in as the new transitional president on 27 November, halting the election process. The army has since tightened restrictions, banning demonstrations and strikes.

Inta-A has promised a one-year transitional period and on Saturday appointed a 28-member cabinet, largely comprised of people associated with the ousted president.

Disputed vote and political outcome

The coup took place three days after presidential elections in which both main contenders – incumbent President Oumar Sissoko Embalo and opposition candidate Fernando Dias da Costa – claimed victory before provisional results were known. No results have been released since then.

During the takeover, Emballo told French media over the phone that he had been deposed and arrested. He has since fled to Brazzaville, the capital of the Republic of Congo.

Nigeria said President Bola Tinubu has granted security to Dias da Costa, citing “imminent threat to his life”.

The PAIGC, one of the country’s major political parties, was barred from fielding candidates in the election – a decision condemned by civil rights groups as part of a broader crackdown on the opposition.

Guinea-Bissau’s new military authorities face increasing pressure from the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) to restore constitutional rule and allow the electoral process to resume.

A high-level delegation from the bloc, led by its current chair and Sierra Leonean President Julius Maada Bio, met with military leaders and electoral commission officials in Bissau on Monday and urged “the full restoration of constitutional order.”

ECOWAS leaders, who have threatened sanctions against those who undermine the democratic process, are due to meet on December 14 to discuss the crisis.