Guinea-Bissau rivals Embalo, Dias claims victory in presidential elections | Elections News

Conflicting claims come ahead of the release of official results by the country’s election commission.

The two main candidates in Guinea-Bissau presidential elections – incumbent Umaro Sissoco Embalo and main challenger Fernando Dias – both declared victory before the official results were announced.

Both campaigns had claimed Monday that their contender crossed the 50 percent threshold needed to win outright, eliminating the need for a runoff.

“We won the presidential race. We will not have a second round,” Dias told supporters in the capital Bissau, adding that people were “tired” and wanted change.

Hours later, Oscar Barbosa, Embalo’s campaign spokesman, also claimed the president had won outright. He stressed that there would be no second round and called on rivals not to make claims that would undermine the electoral process.

There was no immediate comment from the National Electoral Commission, which is expected to announce preliminary results on Thursday, regarding the conflicting claims.

Twelve candidates competed in the poll on Sunday, which had a turnout of more than 65 percent.

The African Party for the Independence of Guinea and Cape Verde (PAIGC), the movement that led the fight against Portuguese colonial rule, was for the first time not allowed to field a candidate.

The party backed Dias and boosted his campaign, especially after former Prime Minister Domingos Simoes Pereira, the PAIGC leader, endorsed him. The 47-year-old is a member of the Party for Social Renewal.

Embalo, 53, is a former army general who served as prime minister from 2016 to 2018. He wants to become the first president of Guinea-Bissau in thirty years and win a second term.

Opposition parties argue that Embalo’s mandate should have ended earlier this year. The Supreme Court ruled that his term should run until early September, but the elections were postponed until November.

Embalo dissolved parliament, which was controlled by the opposition after the 2019 and 2023 parliamentary elections, and has not re-entered it since December 2023.

Guinea-Bissau has experienced repeated coups and attempted coups since its independence more than 50 years ago and remains one of the poorest countries in the world, with half the population living in poverty, according to the World Bank.

More than 200 international observers were in the country to monitor the election process, including from the West African regional bloc ECOWAS, the African Union and the Community of Portuguese-speaking Countries.