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 1,726,000. It borders Senegal to the north and Guinea to the south-east.
Guinea-Bissau was dominated by Portugal from the 1450s to the 1970s;since independence in 1974,the country was controlled by a single-party system until 1991. Following the introduction of multi-party politics in 1991,the first multi-party elections were held in 1994.
The politics of Guinea-Bissau take place in a framework of a semi-presidential representative democratic republic,with a multi-party system,wherein the President is head of state and the Prime Minister is head of government. Executive power is exercised by the government. Legislative power is vested in both the government and the National People's Assembly.
The Revolutionary Armed Forces of the People or FARP are the national military of Guinea-Bissau. They consist of an Army,Navy,Air Force and paramilitary forces. A 2008 United Nations Development Programme census estimated that there were around 4,000 personnel in the Armed Forces. An earlier CIA World Fact Book figure was 9,250. The World Fact Book also estimated military expenditure as $9.46 million,and military spending as a percentage of GDP as 3.1%.
Luís Severino de Almeida Cabral was a Bissau-Guinean politician who was the first President of Guinea-Bissau. He served from 1974 to 1980,when a military coup d'état led by João Bernardo Vieira deposed him. Luís Cabral was a half-brother of Amílcar Cabral,with whom he co-founded the African Party for the Independence of Guinea and Cape Verde (PAIGC) in 1956.
Kumba IaláEmbaló,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 IaláEmbaló. He was the founder of the Party for Social Renewal. In 2014,Ialádied from a cardiopulmonary arrest.
Carlos Domingos Gomes Júnior is a Bissau-Guinean 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.
João Bernardo "Nino" Vieira was a Bissau-Guinean politician who was the President of Guinea-Bissau from 1980 to 1999,except for a three-day period in May 1984,and from 2005 to 2009.
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.
Raimundo Rodrigues Pereira is a Bissau-Guinean 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 Sanháfor 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.
Major Baciro Dabó was a Bissau-Guinean 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.
The United Nations Integrated Peacebuilding Office in Guinea-Bissau (UNIOGBIS) is a United Nations peacebuilding mission in Guinea-Bissau.
General elections were held in Guinea-Bissau on 13 April 2014,with a second round for the presidential elections held on 18 May since no candidate received a majority in the first round. Several logistic problems and delays caused the elections to be repeatedly postponed,having initially been scheduled for 24 November 2013 and then 16 March 2014. In the second round,JoséMário Vaz of the African Party for the Independence of Guinea and Cape Verde was declared the president-elect with 62% of the vote.
Presidential elections were held in Guinea-Bissau on 18 March 2012 following the death of President Malam Bacai Sanháon 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.
Adiato DjalóNandigna is a Bissau-Guinean politician and a former acting Prime Minister of Guinea-Bissau. Her government was overthrown in the 2012 Guinea-Bissau coup d'état,and she was arrested by the security services in 2013. She later returned as the Minister of Defence in the 2015 cabinet of Prime Minister Carlos Correia.
On 12 April 2012,a coup d'état in Guinea-Bissau was staged by elements of the armed forces about two weeks before the second round of a presidential election between Carlos Gomes Júnior and Kumba Ialá. The coup started in the evening with military personnel and equipment making its way onto the streets,followed by the state-owned media being taken off-air.
United Nations Security Council Resolution 2048 was unanimously adopted on 18 May 2012.
The following lists events that happened during 2012 in Guinea-Bissau.
The 1980 Guinea-Bissau coup d'état was the bloodless military coup that took place in Guinea-Bissau on 14 November 1980,led by Prime Minister General João Bernardo Vieira. It led to the deposition of President Luís Cabral,who held the office since 1973,while the country's War of Independence was still ongoing.
Guinea-Bissau 
