By Asaye Bankole

Guinea-Bissau’s electoral commission announced it can’t complete the November 23 presidential election due to a coup. Armed men seized ballots, tally sheets, and computers, and destroyed servers storing results.

This happened on November 26, just a day before provisional results were to be announced. The military took over, and several buildings, including the electoral commission headquarters, were attacked.

“The electoral commission is unable to continue with the election process due to a lack of necessary materials and logistics,” said Idrissa Djalo, a senior official. He explained that computers were taken from 45 staff members, tally sheets from all regions were seized, and the results server was destroyed. “We can’t complete the process without those regional tally sheets,” Djalo stated.

The election process was halted when Major-General Horta Inta-A became the new transitional president on November 27. Since then, the military has restricted protests and strikes. Inta-A has promised a one-year transition and appointed a 28-member cabinet, mostly consisting of allies of the ousted president.

Guinea-Bissau’s new military authorities are under increasing pressure from the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) to restore constitutional rule and resume the election process.

A high-level ECOWAS delegation, led by Sierra Leone’s President Julius Maada Bio, met with military leaders and electoral commission officials in Bissau to push for a “complete restoration of constitutional order”. ECOWAS has threatened sanctions against those undermining democracy and will discuss the crisis on December 14.

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