Navy officers in Guinea-Bissau introduced on Wednesday they’re taking “whole management” of the nation whereas suspending its electoral course of and shutting its borders, simply three days after the poverty-stricken west African nation held legislative and presidential elections.The officers made the announcement by studying a press release on the military headquarters within the capital, Bissau, information company AFP reported.Earlier within the day, gunfire was heard close to the presidential palace as males in navy uniform took over the primary highway resulting in the constructing. Since declaring independence from Portugal in 1973, Guinea-Bissau has endured 4 coups, together with a number of failed makes an attempt.Preliminary outcomes of the presidential and legislative elections had been due on Thursday.Incumbent President Umaro Sissoco Embalo, who has reportedly been arrested by troopers, had been broadly anticipated to win, and the method had unfolded peacefully till Wednesday.Each Embalo and opposition contender Fernando Dias have already claimed victory.The vote, nonetheless, notably excluded the primary opposition occasion PAIGC and its chief Domingos Simões Pereira. In October, the Supreme Court docket struck each from the ultimate record of candidates and events, ruling that their functions had been submitted previous the deadline.Pereira and Embalo are long-standing rivals. Their earlier electoral contest, in 2019, triggered a four-month standoff as every asserted he had gained.On Tuesday, the top of the Financial Neighborhood of West African States (ECOWAS) remark mission, Issifu Baba Braimah Kamara, had praised the “peaceable conduct of the vote,” highlighting the calm earlier than the most recent bout of unrest.Guinea-Bissau, one of many world’s poorest nations, additionally serves as a key transit level for Latin American drug traffickers transferring cocaine to Europe—a commerce enabled by its continual political instability.
