Guinea-Bissau, officially the Republic of Guinea-Bissau, is a country in West Africa that covers 36,125 square kilometres (13,948 sq mi) with an estimated population of 1,815,698.
João Bernardo "Nino" Vieira was the President of Guinea-Bissau from 1980 to 1984, for the second time from 1984 to 1999, and for the third time from 2005 to 2009. After seizing power in 1980, Vieira ruled for 19 years, and he won a multiparty presidential election in 1994. He was ousted at the end of the 1998–1999 civil war and went into exile. He made a political comeback in 2005, winning that year's presidential election. Vieira was killed by soldiers on 2 March 2009, apparently in retaliation for a bomb blast that killed Guinea-Bissau's military chief General Batista Tagme Na Waie. The military officially denied these allegations after Army officials claimed responsibility for Vieira's death.
This name uses Portuguese naming customs. the first or maternal family name is Bacai and the second or paternal family name is Sanhá.
At Vieira's funeral on 10 March 2009, interim President Raimundo Pereira said that meeting the 60-day deadline for holding a new election was "one of our greatest challenges."[5] Cape Verde's Prime Minister, Jose Maria Neves, stated on 27 March 2009 that it was logistically and economically impossible for Guinea-Bissau to hold the election on time, and that it should aim to hold them in June or November (before or after the rain season).[6] Prime Minister Carlos Gomes Junior announced on 31 March that the election would be held on 28 June, with the agreement of "all the parties, the government, the interim president and political classes".[1]
Raimundo Pereira is a Guinea-Bissauan lawyer and politician who was interim President of Guinea-Bissau from 3 March 2009 to 8 September 2009 and again in 2012, following the departure of President Malam Bacai Sanhá for medical treatment abroad; he continued in that capacity after Sanha's death. Pereira was elected as President of the National People's Assembly on 22 December 2008. Pereira is a member of the African Party for the Independence of Guinea and Cape Verde (PAIGC). He was ousted in a coup on 12 April 2012 and succeeded by Mamadu Ture Kuruma.
Foreign donors paid the entire cost of the election, about 5.1 million euros.[7]
Candidates
In April 2009, the Social Renewal Party (PRS), Guinea-Bissau's main opposition party, designated its President, Kumba Ialá (who was previously President of Guinea-Bissau from 2000 to 2003), as its candidate for the presidential election. Some in the party who opposed Ialá's "system of monopoly" instead proposed the candidacy of Baltizar Lopes Fernandes, but they were unsuccessful.[8]
Six candidates sought the presidential nomination of the African Party for the Independence of Guinea and Cape Verde (PAIGC), the ruling party. PAIGC President Carlos Gomes Junior backed Pereira.[8] On 25 April 2009, the PAIGC Central Committee chose Malam Bacai Sanhá, who was interim President of Guinea-Bissau from 1999 to 2000, as the party's presidential candidate. He received 144 votes, while Pereira received 118;[9][10] another unsuccessful candidate for the nomination was former Prime Minister Manuel Saturnino Costa.[10]
Aristides Gomes, who was Prime Minister from 2005 to 2007 and led the Republican Party for Independence and Development (PRID), submitted a candidate application. Francisco Fadul, who was Prime Minister from 1999 to 2000 and is currently the President of the Tribunal of Accounts, also submitted an application to stand as the candidate of his party, the African Party for Development and Citizenship (PADEC). Henrique Rosa, who was Interim President from 2003 to 2005, sought to run as an independent candidate, as did the Minister of Internal Administration, Baciro Dabó. In total, 20 candidates submitted applications to the Supreme Court of Justice, 13 representing political parties and seven independents.[11]Zinha Vaz ran as the candidate of the Guinean Patriotic Union (UPG), and was the only female candidate in the election.[12]
Aristides Gomes is the Prime Minister of Guinea-Bissau, appointed in April 2018, and also previously served as Prime Minister from 2 November 2005 to 13 April 2007. He has subsequently served as President of the Republican Party for Independence and Development (PRID).
The Republican Party for Independence and Development is a political party in Guinea-Bissau led by António Afonso Té.
This name uses Portuguese naming customs. the first or maternal family name is José and the second or paternal family name is Fadul.
On 14 May, the Supreme Court announced that 12 candidacies had been approved and eight had been rejected. The candidacies of Sanhá, Ialá, and Rosa were among those accepted. Fadul's candidacy was rejected on the grounds that he was still President of the Tribunal of Accounts and a member of the Bar, which the Supreme Court judged to be legally incompatible with his presidential candidacy. The candidacy of Aristides Gomes was also rejected on the grounds that he had been out of the country during the 90 days before he filed his candidacy.[12]
Prior to the election, three of the 11 remaining candidates were considered the key contenders for the Presidency: PAIGC candidate Sanhá, PRS candidate Ialá, and independent candidate Rosa.[13]
Campaign
Doubting that Ialá would be able to garner much more support than he obtained in the first round, analysts judged that Sanhá was the clear favorite for the second round.[14] Various minor candidates—Luis Nancassa, Paulo Mendonça, Francisca Vaz Turpin, and Braima Alfa Djalo—endorsed Sanhá after the first round. In mid-July, New Democracy Party candidate Iaia Djalo, who placed fourth with 3.11%, also urged his supporters to vote for Sanhá in the second round.[15]
During the second round campaign, Ialá blamed PAIGC for Guinea-Bissau's problems and alleged that it was responsible for Vieira's assassination. Warning against the use of such inflammatory rhetoric, the army stressed that it would not allow national stability to be endangered.[16]
Conduct
On 5 June, one day before election campaigning was due to start, Dabó was fatally shot in his home, possibly in order to prevent him from ordering a prosecution against President Vieira's killers if he won the election.[17] It was nevertheless decided that the election would proceed as planned on 28 June. Another independent candidate, Paulo Mendonça, said that the election could not legally go ahead on schedule because the constitution required a delay in case of the death of a candidate, and he took the matter to the Supreme Court.[18] Rosa said that his campaign would be initially subdued and would not begin in earnest until seven days after Dabó's death.[19]
Turnout was reportedly low when voting took place on 28 June. Electoral observers from the European Union were present at 80 of the 2,700 polling stations, and the head of the EU mission, Johan Van Hecke, said that "rain played a role" but that it was not solely to blame for the low turnout. He also said that voting proceeded "in a calm and orderly way" and that "not a single incident or complaint was reported to us".[7]
Results
Voters cast their ballots on June 28, 2009. VOA photo
Desejado Lima da Costa, the head of the National Electoral Commission, announced provisional results on 2 July 2009. These results showed Sanhá with 133,786 votes or 39.59% of the vote, Ialá with 99,428 votes or 29.42%, and Rosa with 24.19%; turnout was around 60%, with 593,782 of the nation's 1.4 million eligible voters participating.[20] As a result, Sanhá and Ialá were to proceed to a second round on 2 August.[3] Although Rosa was positioned to make a potentially crucial endorsement for the second round, he declined to do so.[21] The National Electoral Commission announced on 5 July that the second round date was being moved forward from 2 August to 26 July, as the latter date was deemed more compatible with the agricultural harvest season.[2]
On 25 July, Sanhá and Ialá agreed that they would both respect the results of the second round and that any dispute over the results would be handled through the legal process. They also agreed that the losing candidate would enjoy various privileges as a former head of state, including personal security and transportation. Following the second round on 26 July, the National Electoral Commission announced on 29 July that Sanhá had won with 63.52% of the vote (224,259 votes), while Ialá received 36.48%. Turnout was placed at 61%. Ialá said that he accepted the results, urging Sanhá "to work for the development of Guinea-Bissau".[4]
Guinea-Bissau was dominated by Portugal from the 1450s to the 1970s; since independence, the country has been primarily controlled by a single-party system.
Kumba Ialá Embaló, also spelled Yalá, was a Bissau-Guinean politician who was president from 17 February 2000 until he was deposed in a bloodless military coup on 14 September 2003. He belonged to the Balanta ethnic group and was President of the Social Renewal Party (PRS). In 2008 he converted to Islam and took the name Mohamed Ialá Embaló. He was the founder of the Party for Social Renewal. In 2014, Ialá died from a cardiopulmonary arrest.
Carlos Domingos Gomes Júnior is a Guinea-Bissauan politician who was Prime Minister of Guinea-Bissau from 10 May 2004 to 2 November 2005, and again from 25 December 2008 to 10 February 2012. He has been the President of the African Party for the Independence of Guinea and Cape Verde (PAIGC) since 2002 and is widely known as "Cadogo". He resigned as prime minister on 10 February 2012 to run in the presidential election triggered by President Malam Bacai Sanhá's death on 9 January.
The African Party for the Independence of Guinea and Cape Verde is a political party in Guinea-Bissau. Originally formed to peacefully campaign for independence from Portugal, the party turned to armed conflict in the 1960s and was one of the belligerents in the Guinea-Bissau War of Independence. Towards the end of the war, the party established a Marxist–Leninist one-party state, which remained intact until multi-party democracy was introduced in the early 1990s. Although the party won the first multi-party elections in 1994, it was removed from power in the 1999–2000 elections. However, it returned to office after winning parliamentary elections in 2004 and presidential elections in 2005, since which it has remained the largest party in the National People's Assembly.
Elections in Guinea-Bissau take place within the framework of a multi-party democracy and a semi-presidential system. Both the President and the National People's Assembly are directly elected by voters.
Presidential elections were held in Guinea-Bissau on 19 June 2005, with a second round runoff on 24 July. The elections marked the end of a transition to democratic rule after the previously elected government was overthrown in a September 2003 military coup led by General Veríssimo Correia Seabra. The result was a victory for former President and independent candidate João Bernardo Vieira.
The Party for Social Renewal is a political party in Guinea-Bissau. It is one of the country's leading parties and is currently the main opposition party.
Ansumane Mané was a Bissau-Guinean soldier who led a 1998 uprising against the government of President João Bernardo Vieira, which caused a brief, but bloody civil war.
Manuel Saturnino da Costa is a Guinea-Bissau politician who served as Prime Minister of Guinea-Bissau from 26 October 1994 to 6 June 1997.
Carlos Correia is a Guinea-Bissau politician who was Prime Minister of Guinea-Bissau from 17 September 2015 to 12 May 2016. Previously he was Prime Minister from 27 December 1991 to 26 October 1994, from 6 June 1997 to 3 December 1998, and from 5 August 2008 to 25 December 2008.
This name uses Portuguese naming customs. the first or maternal family name is Ndafa and the second or paternal family name is Kabi.
Major Baciro Dabó was a Guinea-Bissauan politician. Considered to have been a close ally of President João Bernardo "Nino" Vieira, he served as Minister of Territorial Administration and was standing as a candidate in the June 2009 presidential election when he was killed by security forces, allegedly because he was involved in a coup plot.
General elections were held in Guinea-Bissau on 28 November 1999, with a second round for the presidential election on 16 January 2000. The presidential election resulted in a victory for opposition leader Kumba Ialá of the Party for Social Renewal (PRS), who defeated Malam Bacai Sanhá of the ruling African Party for the Independence of Guinea and Cape Verde. The PRS were also victorious in the National People's Assembly election, winning 38 of the 102 seats.
Presidential elections were held in Guinea-Bissau on 18 March 2012 following the death of President Malam Bacai Sanhá on 9 January. A run-off was set to be held on 29 April after being postponed by a week as announced by electoral commission chief Desejado Lima Dacosta. However, after a military coup, the leading candidates were arrested and the election was cancelled. The junta's spokesman then announced plans to hold an election in two years, despite condemnation. General elections were subsequently held in April 2014.
José Mário Gómes Vaz is the President of Guinea-Bissau, in office since 23 June 2014.
Francisca Maria Monteira e Silva Vaz Turpin, better known as Zinha Vaz, is a Bissau-Guinean women's rights activist and politician. She has been a member of the National People's Assembly for several terms for the Resistance of Guinea-Bissau-Bafatá Movement, as well as a presidential advisor. In 1999 she served for a brief time as mayor of the capital city Bissau. She was jailed for political reasons for three years during the 1970s and in 2003 again for several days. Recently she was ambassador to Gambia.
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