Guinea-Bissau rivals Embalo, Dias claim win in presidential election

Before the release of the official results, both the two main rivals and incumbent incumbent Umaro Sissoco Embalo and Fernando Dias, who are the two front-runners in Guinea-Bissau’s presidential election, have already won.

Both campaigns had made a run-off claim on Monday that their candidate had overreached the required 50% to win.

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The election for president has been won by us. In Bissau, the capital, Dias declared that the people were “tired” and wanted change, adding that there would be no more.

Oscar Barbosa, Embalo’s campaign spokesperson, added that the president had won the election by herself, that there would be no run-off, and that rivals should refrain from making accusations that would denigrate the process.

The National Electoral Commission, which is expected to release preliminary results on Thursday, did not immediately comment on the disputing assertions.

In the poll on Sunday, which had a turnout of more than 65 percent, 12 candidates vied for the spot.

The movement that spearheaded the fight against Portuguese colonial rule, the African Party for the Independence of Guinea and Cape Verde (PAIGC), was denied for the first time.

Dias received support from the party, which helped his campaign, especially since former prime minister Domingos Simoes Pereira, the party’s leader, supported him. The Party for Social Renewal is led by the 47-year-old.

Embalo, 53, was a former army general and prime minister from 2016 to 2018 until now. In 30 years, he wants to win a second term as Guinea-Bissau’s first president.

Opposition parties contend Embalo should have been given more time this year. Although the election was postponed due to the Supreme Court’s ruling, his term was postponed until early September.

After the 2019 and 2023 legislative elections, Embalo dissolved parliament, which had been under the control of the opposition, and has not allowed it to sit since December 2023.

Guinea-Bissau has run numerous coups and attempted coups since gaining its independence more than 50 years ago, and the World Bank estimates that half of the country’s population resides in poverty.