Guinea-Bissau’s presidential and legislative elections, scheduled for December 6, will have to be delayed, Prime Minister Ilidio Vieira Te told reporters on October 8, though he did not set a new date. The West African nation held a presidential election in November last year that was disrupted when soldiers toppled the civilian government before the results could be announced. Voters in August approved a new constitution that expanded presidential powers.
The prime minister’s stated reasons were procedural: political parties had not held their congresses to choose their leaders, and potential candidates missed the October 6 deadline for submitting their bids to the nation’s Supreme Court. “There are no conditions for holding the elections scheduled for December 6,” he said. Last week, the government blocked former president Umaro Sissoco Embalo from returning, citing national security concerns; Embalo had planned to return to contest the presidential election.
Civil society activists say the interim government has used fear to crush political dissent, citing the unsolved murder of rapper and political-movement founder Vigario Luis Balanta; the government denies a role and says it is investigating. With no new date announced and the candidate deadline already passed, the live question is whether a credible timetable is set at all or whether the delay stretches indefinitely.