The Agence France-Presse AFP is reporting that Guinea Bissau’s President Umaro Sissoco Embalo has said on Sunday that he could be prepared to run for a second term if his supporters willed it, appearing to backtrack on a previous announcement that he would not seek re-election.
Embalo, whose election was contested by his opponents, on Wednesday said he would not seek a second term after his current one, which runs until 2025.
But during a meeting of supporters from his Madem G15 party on Sunday, Embalo said his mind could be changed.
“I declared that I would not be a candidate for a second term, following the advice of my wife and family, and if you think that I should go back on my decision, then I am entirely at your disposal,” Embalo said in front of an enthusiastic crowd.
“If you think I’m a solution for this country, I’ll be there,” he added.
Embalo, 51, was sworn in for a five-year term in February 2020 at the head of the small Portuguese-speaking country plagued with instability.
The international community eventually endorsed his election, but the result was contested for months, even after his investiture.
Embalo’s main opponent, Domingos Simoes Pereira, has always refused to recognise his opponent’s victory, which he claims was fraudulent.
Guinea-Bissau, a former Portuguese colony of about two million people, is notoriously unstable, having suffered a series of military or political coups since independence in 1974.
The West African nation is one of the world’s poorest and was ranked 158th out of 180 countries on Transparency International’s 2023 Corruption Perceptions Index.
