Guinea-Bissau’s opposition has won an overall majority in legislative elections, heralding power-sharing with President Umaro Sissoco Embalo, according to official results released yesterday.
A coalition led by the African Party for the Independence of Guinea and Cape Verde (PAIGC) won 54 out of 102 seats, ahead of Embalo’s Madem G15 party, which picked up 29, said Mpabi Cabi, acting head of the electoral commission.
The Party for Social Renewal (PRS) won 12 seats, the Workers’ Party six seats and the Assembly of the People United one seat.
The outcome is a blow for Embalo, who came to power in 2019.
He dissolved the National Assembly in May 2022 after falling out with lawmakers, describing the legislature as a “space for guerrilla politics and plotting”.
The outgoing assembly had been roughly divided equally between the leftwing PAIGC, Madem G15 and the PRS.
Analysts said Embalo’s electoral setback was caused by rifts within his party and unpopularity with rural voters hit by falling prices of cashew nuts, a major source of income.
Under the constitution, the party which obtains the majority in parliament automatically gains the post of prime minister.
That party in this case is the Plataforma da Aliança Inclusiva coalition and it is headed by Domingos Simões Pereira who was sacked as prime minister by President Embalo after the last election.
Mr Pereira recently failed in his bid to get The Gambia and three other countries suspended from Ecowas for their swift recognition of Embalo.
Agence France Presse
