Guinea-Bissau election claims emerge as President Embalo and challenger Fernando Dias both declare first-round victory ahead of provisional results
Both the incumbent President Umaro Sissoco Embalo and challenger Fernando Dias have claimed victory in Guinea-Bissau’s presidential election following Sunday’s first-round voting, ahead of provisional results due on Thursday.
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The West African nation’s vote passed off peacefully, but the main opposition party PAIGC and its candidate, Domingoes Simoes Pereira, were excluded from the ballot.
PAIGC and Pereira have endorsed Dias, who challenged Embalo in the absence of the main opposition contender.
“There won’t be a second round,” Embalo’s campaign spokesperson Oscar Barbosa told AFP, asserting that the president “will have a second mandate.”
Dias also claimed victory in a social media video, stating, “This election has been won, it has been won in the first round.”
The Supreme Court, which removed PAIGC and Pereira from the official list of candidates in October for filing late applications, has yet to validate the provisional results.
ECOWAS election observer mission head Issufu Baba Braimah Kamara praised the “peaceful conduct of the vote from start to finish” but cautioned against announcing uncertified results, urging supporters to remain patient.
Political stability has remained a central concern.
Guinea-Bissau has experienced four coups since independence in 1974, the last in 2012, and numerous attempted coups.
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Embalo, originally elected in December 2019, had previously stated he would serve only one term.
