Guinea-Bissau election results stolen amid coup –National Electoral Commission

 Guinea-Bissaus National Electoral Commission has announced that it is unable to finalize the results of the recent presidential election because unknown gunmen broke into its office and stole or destroyed the vote tally sheets.The commission reported on Tuesday, December 2, that the theft occurred on November 26, three days after the presidential and legislative elections, and on the same day the military seized power in the country.This chaos leaves the question of who won the presidency unanswered, as both the incumbent President Umaro Sissoco Embal and opposition candidate Fernando Dias da Costa claimed victory following the November 23 vote.Following the disputed claims, the military seized power and installed former army chief of staff Gen.3 Horta Inta-a as the head of the military government, which is set to oversee a one-year transition period.On Saturday, Inta-a appointed a new 28-member government, most of whom are reported to be allies of the ousted president. Ousted President Embal has since fled to the Republic of Congos capital, Brazzaville.Meanwhile, Nigeria has confirmed that President Bola Tinubu granted protection for opposition candidate da Costa in response to an imminent threat to his life.Former Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan, who was in Guinea-Bissau as the head of the West African Elders Forum Election Observation Mission during the upheaval, has controversially stated that the military takeover was not a coup and insisted that the election results must still be announced.Jonathan described the sequence of events as strange and labelled the incident a ceremonial coup, arguing that the militarys actions did not follow the usual pattern of a conventional takeover.He said: Specifically, what happened in Guinea-Bissau was not a coup. Maybe, for want of a better word, I would say it was a ceremonial coup. It is the president, President Umaro Embal, that announced the coup. Before later, a military man came up to address the world that they were in charge of everywhere.Embal had already announced the coup, which is strange. Not only announcing the coup, but Embal, while the coup took place, was using his phone and addressing media organisations across the world that he had been arrested.Jonathan questioned the credibility of the military takeover, pointing out that military leaders do not typically allow an arrested president to speak freely to the international media.He called on ECOWAS and the African Union to publish the election results, which observers believe were properly collated. The post Guinea-Bissau election results stolen amid coup National Electoral Commission appeared first on Linda Ikeji Blog.