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

After armed men seized the ballots, tally sheets, and computers from its offices, and destroyed the results-storing servers, Guinea-Bissau’s electoral commission has declared it is unable to finish the November 23 presidential election.

One day before the commission was scheduled to release the preliminary results of the intensely contested vote, army officers took control on November 26. During the takeover, several structures, including the electoral commission’s headquarters, were attacked.

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Senior electoral commission official Idrissa Djalo said in a statement on Tuesday that “we do not have the material and logistic conditions to carry out the electoral process.”

According to him, “they confiscated the computers of all 45 staff members who were present at the commission that day,” adding that records from all regions had been seized and the server where the results had been stored had been destroyed.

Without the region’s tally sheets, Djalo said, “the electoral process cannot be completed.”

The election process was halted by Major-General Horta Inta-A’s swearing-in as the new transitional president on November 27. Since then, the military has imposed stricter restrictions, putting an end to strikes and demonstrations.

A 28-member cabinet, made largely of people connected to the deposed president, was appointed on Saturday after Inta-A promised a one-year transitional period.

Disputed votes and political repercussions

Three days after the presidential election, both main contenders, opposition candidate Fernando Dias da Costa and incumbent president Umaro Sissoco Embalo, claimed victory before the election’s preliminary results were due, leading to a coup. Since then, no conclusions have been made.

Embalo claimed that he had been deposed and detained while he was in charge of the takeover. Since then, he has fled to Brazzaville, the Republic of Congo’s capital.

Dias da Costa’s protection was cited as an “imminent threat to his life,” according to Nigeria.

Civil rights organizations criticized the PAIGC’s decision, which one of the country’s dominant political parties had blocked them from running in the election. They claimed it was part of a wider crackdown on the opposition.

The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) is putting pressure on Guinea-Bissau’s new military authorities to reinstate constitutional rule and allow the election process to resume.

A high-level delegation from the bloc, led by its current chairman Julius Maada Bio and Sierra Leone’s president, met with military leaders and electoral commission officials in Bissau on Monday to demand a “complete restoration of constitutional order.”