Guinea-Bissau sets parliamentary polls for November 24

Guinea-Bissau’s President Umaro Sissoco Embalo said Monday that the country will elect a new parliament on November 24, months after he dissolved it following what he called an “attempted coup”.

These will be the second parliamentary elections in a year-and-a-half in the West African country, which is notoriously unstable, having suffered a series of military or political coups since independence from Portugal in 1974.

Embalo, who has been president since 2020, dissolved the opposition-dominated parliament in December 2023 after announcing an “attempted coup” had taken place.

Violence erupted in the capital Bissau between members of the National Guard and special forces of the presidential guard on the night of November 30, leaving two people dead.

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The majority coalition at the time of the dissolution is opposed to the new legislative elections. It says it already won the June 2023 vote.

Leaders of the regional bloc Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), of which Guinea-Bissau is a member, urged the country “to accelerate the process of holding new legislative elections” at a summit in Nigeria on Sunday.