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Former prime minister and ex-army general Umaro Cissoko Embalo has won Guinea-Bissau’s presidential vote, the electoral commission said yesterday, but his opponent complained of fraud and vowed to contest the result in court.
The dispute looks set to extend the kind of political chaos that has dogged the tiny West African country in recent years and made voters weary of the political class. Embalo, 47, won with 54% of Sunday’s vote, the commission said, versus 46% for another ex-prime minister Domingos Simoes Pereira in the poll to succeed incumbent President Jose Mario Vaz.
Vaz’s tenure was marred by political infighting, an ill-functioning parliament and corruption.
If Pereira’s challenge fails, Embalo, who served as prime minister under Vaz from 2016-18, faces the difficult task of overcoming a long-running political impasse and modernizing the nation of 1.6 million people. Guinea Bissau has seen nine coups or attempted coups since independence from Portugal in 1974.
