The President of Guinea-Bissau, Umaro Sissoco Embalo, has dissolved the opposition-dominated Parliament in the country, three days after armed clashes that he describes as an “attempted coup d’état” led to another political crisis.
“The date of the next legislative elections will be set at the appropriate time, in accordance with the provisions (…) of the Constitution,” according to a presidential decree communicated to the press.
Clashes between the National Guard and special forces of the presidential guard broke out in Bissau, the country’s capital, on Thursday night and continued on Friday after National Guard soldiers freed two senior government officials, the secretary of state for the treasury, Antonio Monteiro, and the finance minister, Souleiman Seidi, who were detained on a corruption investigation into the purported improper withdrawal of $10 million in public finances.
“After this attempted coup d’état led by the National Guard and in the face of strong evidence of the existence of political complicity, the normal functioning of the institutions of the Republic has become impossible. These facts confirm the existence of a serious crisis politics ,” President Embalo said.
Guinea -Bissau has been faced with persistent political instability and has experienced a string of coups in recent years, the last in February 2022.
A report by Reuters say elements of the National Guard invaded the premises of the judicial police on Thursday evening to free Seidi and Monteiro who were being questioned there. Then they took shelter in a military camp in the capital Bissau, and resisted attempts to be dislodged by the special forces of the Presidential Guard until Friday morning.
The clashes left at least two dead. They are seen as a new illustration of the deep political fractures at the heart of the state between the presidency and the government, which also run through the security forces.
The National Guard essentially reports to the Ministry of the Interior, and therefore to the government, itself an emanation of Parliament dominated by the opposition. The prosecution, which ordered the arrest of the two members of the government, report to the presidency.
The legislative elections of June 2023 gave an absolute majority to a coalition formed around the historic African Party for the Independence of Guinea and Cape Verde (PAIGC), the president’s old adversary. Mr. Embalo, who has led the country since 2020, has had to work with the government, as currently constituted.
In his decree, the president denounced “the passivity of the government” in the face of events. He alleged that the aim of the National Guard, in seeking to release the two members of the government, was to obstruct the investigations carried out by the prosecution.
President Embalo accused Parliament of having “preferred to defend members of the executive suspected of acts of corruption seriously harming the higher interests of the State”, rather than “fighting for the rigorous application of the law ( …) and to exercise its role of controlling the actions of the government.
Mr. Embalo warned that these actions would have “serious consequences” .