Guinea-Bissau’s presidential election remains unresolved after the country’s electoral commission announced on Tuesday that it cannot finalise results from the disputed 23 November vote.
The commission said armed men stormed its headquarters on 26 November—one day before the planned release of official results—stealing ballots and vote tallies and destroying servers containing key electoral data.
“We are not in material and logistical conditions to continue the electoral process,” said Idrissa Djalo, a senior commission official.
Both incumbent President Umaro Sissoco Embaló and opposition candidate Fernando Dias da Costa had declared victory shortly before the military seized power the same day. Embaló described the takeover as a coup.
Following the intervention, military officers installed former army chief General Horta Inta-a as interim leader.
He was sworn in the day after the takeover and has since appointed a 28-member transitional government, largely made up of allies of the ousted president, to oversee a one-year transition period.
Embaló fled first to Senegal and later to Brazzaville, capital of the Republic of Congo. Meanwhile, Nigeria announced that President Bola Tinubu had granted protection to Dias da Costa, citing an “imminent threat to his life.”
Foreign observers and opposition groups have accused Embaló and loyalists within the military of orchestrating the coup to prevent a potential electoral defeat.
