2023-06-08 20:28:16
Democracy can score a victory in Guinea Bissau. The legislative elections held last Sunday and whose results were published this Thursday are proof of this. A nation that the Democracy Index of The Economist catalog as an “authoritarian dictatorship”and whose position on this list is below Vietnam, Cuba or Saudi Arabia, has climbed positions in the last week in the subject of freedoms.
The electoral results granted an absolute majority to the Inclusive Alliance Platform Coalition – Terra Ranka (PAI –Terra Ranka), led by Domingos Pereira, with 54 seats out of the 102 held by the National Assembly. The party of the president of the current Government, Sissoco Embaló, had to be content with 29 seats compared to the 27 it had in the previous legislative cycle. Democracy wins and Embaló loses. The president dissolved the National Assembly in May 2022 alleging “irresolvable differences” between the Government and the majority of the chamber, and also in response to the corruption that plagued several deputies.
Thousands of people have gathered in Bissau in front of the PAIGC headquarters, the majority party within the PAI-Terra Ranka coalition, to celebrate a victory that sheds a ray of hope for Guinea’s future. Despite the presence of 200 international observers, 114 of them from the African Union, there were serious doubts about the veracity of the process and some suspicion on the part of the citizens interviewed by this newspaper, but finally it seems that the fears, although founded, have ended up not being fulfilled. It remains to be seen how Embaló will react to his defeat.
Two months after the dissolution of the National Assembly, LA RAZÓN interviewed Domingos Pereira to know your opinion about it. The opposition leader then confirmed that “democracy in Guinea Bissau is sick and is at great risk,” accusing Embaló of “destroying the institutions that give him power”. Likewise, he considered that the disagreements within parliament that Embaló alleged were still a symptom of democratic health, while its dissolution did nothing more than “return problems to society.”
Domingos’ speech has triumphed over Embaló’s acts. It should be remembered that the current Guinean president was inaugurated unofficially in a sort of pantomime held at the Azalai Hotel and that a contingent of Senegalese and Nigerian soldiers patrol the streets of the capital (without the consent of the Assembly ever being given). National to allow their entry into the country) in order to guarantee their permanence in power.
The Guinean population, which usually enjoys political conversations with friends and family, has preferred to remain silent in recent years for fear of possible reprisals from the government. Since Sissoco took power, there have been attacks against opposition figures and there was even an alleged attempt at a coup d’état in 2022 that finally came to nothing, although today is a day of freedom of expression, illusion and collective revelry for Guineans. Sissoco Embaló’s presidency may have been complicated by an opposition majority in the National Assembly, but he too has reason to be happy: Guinean democracy has emerged strengthened thanks to his defeat.
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