Guinea-Bissau army officers say they have seized power, president arrested

DEVELOPING STORYDEVELOPING STORY,

Officers order suspension of electoral process, border closures a day before presidential vote results expected.

A group of military officers in Guinea-Bissau has claimed “total control” of the country, a day after both the top candidates in a tightly contested presidential election declared victory.

Calling themselves the “High Military Command for the Restoration of Order”, the officers read out a statement on television on Wednesday, declaring that they had ordered the immediate suspension of the electoral process “until further notice”.

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They also ordered the closure of all land, air and sea borders and an overnight curfew.

The move came shortly after sustained gunfire was heard near the election commission’s headquarters, the presidential palace and the Ministry of the Interior in the capital, Bissau.

The results of Sunday’s presidential vote had been expected to be announced on Thursday in the West African nation. The vote pitted President Umaro Sissoco Embalo against his primary challenger, Fernando Dias.

“We have confirmation that the president is under arrest,” Al Jazeera’s Nicolas Haque reported from neighbouring Senegal on Wednesday afternoon.

The head of the main opposition PAIGC party, Domingos Simoes Pereira, has also been arrested, Haque said. “As well, we’ve just heard that the military is trying to cut off the Internet. There’s a curfew in place.”

He added that the army officer leading the coup, Denis N’Canha, served as the head of the presidential guard. “The man supposed to protect the president himself has put the president under arrest,” Haque said.

A soldier stops a car near the scene of gunfire near the presidential palace in Bissau [Patrick Meinhardt/AFP]

Disputed vote

Guinea-Bissau has experienced several coups and attempted coups since it gained independence from Portugal in 1974.

The legitimacy of this week’s election was called into question by civil society groups and other observers after the PAIGC was barred from running in the presidential race, Haque reported.

“There was going to be a stalemate over who was going to win this [week’s] election, and that is when the military stepped in,” he said.

Both Embalo and Dias had already declared victory with little proof to support their claims.

“There won’t be a second round,” Embalo’s campaign spokesperson Oscar Barbosa told the AFP news agency on Tuesday, adding that the president “will have a second mandate”.

Dias also declared victory, saying in a video posted to social media: “This election has been won. It has been won in the first round.”

Guinea-Bissau’s last presidential vote in 2019 was marked by a four-month post-election crisis as both main candidates claimed victory. That election had pitted Embalo against Pereira.