A group of 20 eminent Africans, including former President of Cabo Verde Pedro Pires, ex-Foreign Minister José Brito, former senior ECOWAS officials, heads of International bodies and civil society organisations, has in a joint statement, demanded the immediate release of the results of the 23 November legislative and presidential elections in Guinea-Bissau and the winner declared.
“ECOWAS must demand the truth (about the elections), protect the winner and request the freeing of the political actors being detained by the military junta,” the group said in the statement titled “Restoring Constitutional Order and the Rule of Law In Guinea-Bissau.”
“…taking into account an opinion widely shared in West Africa and throughout the rest of the continent, …we take the liberty to call the attention of the ECOWAS Heads of State, who are meeting in a Summit, on 14th December to make a bold move towards solving the current crisis afflicting one of the most fragile (states) of… the community,” the statement added.
According to the group, “What prompted us to act is (that) under the threat of security services and the army, the National Electoral Commission, CNE was forced to declare its inability… to continue the compilation of the election results and to announce them.”
“It (CNE) said that the military had destroyed and/or taken away the documents and data needed for releasing the election results recorded in Guinea-Bissau’s eight regions, in a desperate attempt to destroy the archives,” the statement added.
Stating that “it is not late to salvage the democratic aspirations, based on the tenets of the rule of law in Guinea-Bissau,” the statement said: “We salute the convening of a virtual summit by the ECOWAS Heads of State and Government… in the aftermath of the (26 November) putsch, as well as its condemnation of the staged coup undertaken by key military officers all closely linked to the outgoing President (Umaro Sissoco Embaló.”
“We are also pleased with the decision to send a mission to Bissau conducted by the current Chairperson of the ECOWAS Authority, President Julius Maada Bio of Sierra Leone,” the group added.
“As active members of the civil society from across Africa, we cannot keep quiet in the face of such blatant violations that Guinea-Bissau suffered…,” the statement said. “Accepting that a group of military and political players collude to deprive their compatriots… the right to freely choose their leaders through transparent elections would signal to the whole of West Africa that the only rule… is that of the most powerful.”
The group denounced the “comic arrest of the outgoing President Embaló, who rushed to inform the whole world, in a suspicious enthusiasm, that he had been deposed, while the army went to the headquarters of the national electoral commission, where the election results were being compiled for release the next day and took over machines and documents about the electoral results, arresting officials close to the opposition camp against outgoing president, who was seeking re-election.”
“We are shocked by this brutal intrusion of the army aiming to interrupt an electoral process to which citizens of Guinea-Bissau, Amilcar Cabral’s country, held high hopes to the last minute,” the group added.
It said that “other stakeholders from the continent and beyond, in particular the African Union, United Nations and the Community of Portuguese-Speaking Countries (CPLP) must also play a role in this crucial moment for Guinea-Bissau, towards political and constitutional stability in a West African region already stricken by deep security, economic and political crises.”
“We also invite the African public opinion and the rest of the world to express by all legal means their rejection of the undemocratic manoeuvres underway in Guinea-Bissau, while paying tribute to the maturity of its people,” the statement said.
“We believe that Guinea-Bissau deserves to be supported to conclude its electoral process, the building of democratic institutions and a rule of law-based State,” the group said, adding that the “argument claiming an impossibility to finalize the electoral process and announce the outcome, owing to the brutal military infringement, and the threats on the members of the electoral commission and other important political players, is not acceptable.”
The statement quoted various sources as saying that “copies, even the original versions, of the election tallies have been preserved, and it will only take a coordinated international pressure to have them published.”
(L-R) Embaló and Dias
Embaló and the independent candidate Fernando Dias claimed victory in the 23 November presidential election, before the military struck, claiming that “drug lords” wanted to destabilise the country’s democratic process.
In the lead-up to the November poll, the Supreme Court of Justice disqualified the leader of the African Party for the Independence of Guinea-Bissau and Cabo Verde (PAIGC), Domingos Simoes Pereira and his opposition Coalition “PAI-Terra Ranka from the legislative and presidential elections.
Pereira is among Embaló’s political opponents arrested during the coup.
Following the military intrusion, Embaló was evacuated by Senegalese President Diomaye Faye to Dakar. However, due to the protest by Senegalese Prime Minister Ousmane Sonko, who dismissed the Guinea-Bissau coup as a “sham,” Embaló has moved to Congo-Brazzaville.
Latest reports indicate that he has left for Morocco en route to Portugal, with an alleged plan to return to Guinea-Bissau to reclaim political power from his military cronies. Some analysts are also calling on Lisbon to use its leverage as the former colonial power to ensure the urgent restoration of constitutional order in Guinea-Bissau.
Below are the signatories to the joint statement:
Former President of Cabo Verde, Pedro Pires
Former Minister of Foreign Affairs of Cabo Verde, José Brito
Dr Abass Bundu, former Executive Secretary, ECOWAS
Ambassador Luis Fonseca, former Secretary General, CPLP
Hajia Halima Ahmed, former ECOWAS Commissioner for Political Affairs, Peace & Security, and Finance
Dr Adebayo Olukoshi, former Executive Secretary, CODESRIA
Dr. Kojo Asante, Director of Policy Engagement, Centre for Democracy and Development CDD-Ghana
Prof. Jibrin Ibrahim, Senior Fellow, CDD-Nigeria
Barr Femi Falana, (SAN) Human Rights activist and former Secretary-General, West African Bar Association
Mr Adama Gaye, former ECOWAS Communication Director
Mr Lamine Guirassy, Chairman, Media Companies, Guinea-Conakry Prof. Kwame Karikari, Founder and former Executive Director, Media Foundation for West Africa.
Emeritus Professor Takyiwaa Manuh, University of Ghana
Prof Mahmoud Mamdani, based in New-York, USA
Prof El Hadji Ibrahima Mboup, Senegal
Mr Nicole Mikolo, Journalist from Congo-Brazzaville
Human Rights Lawyer Fatou Jagne Senghore, Founder, Centre for Leadership & Women’s Rights, Gambia
Dr Jean-Pierre Tchanou, Economist, Cameroon
Dr Alioune Tine, President, AfrikaJom Centre, Senegal, and,
Dr. Gilles Yabi, Founder, Wathi Think-Tank, Benin
Paul Ejime is a Media/Communications Specialist and Global Affairs Analyst
