Today, the President of Guinea-Bissau, Umaro Sissoco Embaló, urged the armed forces to ensure security in the country during the electoral process until the parliamentarians’ inauguration to be chosen in the elections on June 4.
Sissoco Embaló was speaking to the military, on parade, at the General Staff of the Armed Forces headquarters, at Amura Fortress, in the center of Bissau.
Accompanied by the Chief of Staff of the Armed Forces, General Biague Na Ntan, the Guinean President said he was visiting the place as commander-in-chief and not as a politician to see former colleagues again.
Umaro Sissoco Embaló served the Guinean Armed Forces in the 1990s.
“I came to talk to my comrades in the trenches, to tell them to stay away from politicians because politicians have promoted all the uprisings that have happened in this country, but those who end up paying are us, the military,” said Embaló.
Addressing General Biague Na Ntan, the President praised all Armed Forces elements for ensuring the electoral process runs smoothly until the new deputies are sworn in.
“I have charged the Armed Forces General Staff Chief to ensure that things run smoothly.”
“I think the elections will be fair, free, and transparent, and whoever loses will know how to respect the expression of the majority’s will,” observed Sissoco Embaló.
The Guinean President clarified that he is not involved in the election campaign because he is an “arbitrator of the process” and that no one has seen him with “the jersey on or calling for the vote for a particular party.”
Umaro Sissoco Embaló considered that “perhaps some parties” are misinterpreting his words during the ongoing election campaign, which is scheduled to end on June 2.
In an open letter addressed today to the head of state, the electoral coalition Inclusive Alliance Platform (PAI)-Terra Ranka demanded the President of Guinea-Bissau stop interfering in the electoral campaign and comply with the law.
Made up of five parties, the PAI-Terra Ranka coalition is led by the African Party for the Independence of Guinea and Cape Verde (PAIGC), whose President, Domingos Simões Pereira, the head of state, has already warned that he will not appoint a prime minister in the event of an election victory.
The leader of the Social Renewal Party (PRS), Fernando Dias, has also called Umaro Sissoco Embaló to stay away from the election campaign because they are not elections to choose the President of the Republic.
The head of the Guinean Armed Forces, General Biague Na Ntan, assured that “nothing will happen” during the electoral process and promised peace and tranquility in Guinea-Bissau.
With information from Lusa
News Guinea-Bissau, English news Guinea-Bissau, Guinea-Bissau’s elections