Guinea-Bissau’s electoral commission is unable to publish the results of the presidential and legislative elections held on 23rd November due to the destruction of ballots and electoral materials by armed men on the day of the November 26 coup, one of its officials said yesterday.
The “logistical and material conditions” are not met to “complete the electoral process and announce the results” because “all the electoral material has been destroyed and there are no election reports whatsoever,” said Idriça Djalo, deputy executive secretary of the National Electoral Commission (CNE), quoted by AFP.
On 26th November, the day before the planned announcement of the election results, soldiers overthrew outgoing president Umaro Sissoco Embalo, in power since 2020, and suspended the ongoing electoral process.
Since then, General Horta N’Tam has been appointed president of a one-year transition, along with a prime minister.
The electoral commission met on Monday with a delegation from Ecowas, the regional organisation which asked the CNE whether it was able to continue the electoral process and publish the results.
“We told them no,” Djalo said during yesterday’s press conference in the capital, Bissau. Ecowas condemned the coup and called for the restoration of constitutional order.
Djalo described the scene inside the electoral commission’s offices in Bissau on the day of the coup.
“A group of armed, masked men stormed into the results compilation room. The group threatened the 45 CNE members present and arrested the commission president [Mpabi Cabi] and the five Supreme Court judges who were in the room,” he said, speaking in the presence of the CNE members, including Cabi.
These armed men “seized the phones” of the 45 people in the room and destroyed all the result sheets. The main server was destroyed. The result sheets from Oio and Cacheu (in the north), two major vote reservoirs that were being transported to the capital, were intercepted and confiscated by other armed men, he added.
