EMINENT AFRICANS DEMAND IMMEDIATE RELEASE OF GUINEA-BISSAU ELECTION RESULTS

A coalition of twenty eminent Africans has issued a forceful demand for the immediate release of the results from Guinea-Bissau’s November 23 legislative and presidential elections and for the winner to be declared. The group, in a joint statement titled “Restoring Constitutional Order and the Rule of Law In Guinea-Bissau,” called on the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) to intervene decisively.

“What prompted us to act is (that) under the threat of security services and the army, the National Electoral Commission, CNE was forced to declare its inability… to continue the compilation of the election results and to announce them,” the statement said. It further alleged, “It (CNE) said that the military had destroyed and/or taken away the documents and data needed for releasing the election results recorded in Guinea-Bissau’s eight regions, in a desperate attempt to destroy the archives.”

The group denounced what it described as a “comic arrest of the outgoing President Embaló, who rushed to inform the whole world, in a suspicious enthusiasm, that he had been deposed, while the army went to the headquarters of the national electoral commission, CNE, where the election results were being compiled for release the next day and took over machines and documents pertaining to the electoral results, arresting officials close to the opposition camp against outgoing president, who was seeking re-election.” They added, “We are shocked by this brutal intrusion of the army aiming to interrupt an electoral process.”

The statement calls for robust regional action. “ECOWAS must demand the truth (about the elections), protect the winner and request the freeing of the political actors being detained by the military junta,” the group said. It also welcomed the convening of a virtual ECOWAS summit and the decision to send a mission led by Sierra Leone’s President Julius Maada Bio.

Warning of broader consequences, the group stated, “Accepting that a group of military and political players collude to deprive their compatriots… the right to freely choose their leaders through transparent elections would signal to the whole of West Africa that the only rule… is that of the most powerful.” They argued that the “argument claiming an impossibility to finalize the electoral process and announce the outcome, owing to the brutal military infringement, and the threats on the members of the electoral commission and other important political players, is not acceptable,” noting that copies of election tallies are believed to have been preserved.

The signatories also urged the African Union, United Nations, and the Community of Portuguese-Speaking Countries (CPLP) to play a role. The statement concluded by paying “tribute to the maturity of its people” and asserting that “Guinea-Bissau deserves to be supported to conclude its electoral process.”

The statement was signed by former President of Cabo Verde Pedro Pires; former Cabo Verde Foreign Minister José Brito; Dr Abass Bundu, former ECOWAS Executive Secretary; Ambassador Luis Fonseca, former CPLP Secretary General; Hajia Halima Ahmed, former ECOWAS Commissioner; Dr Olukeshi Adebayo, former Executive Secretary of CODESRIA; Dr. Kojo Asante of CDD-Ghana; Prof. Jibrin Ibrahim of CDD-Nigeria; Barr Femi Falana (SAN); Mr Adama Gaye, former ECOWAS Communication Director; Mr Lamine Guirassy, a media chairman from Guinea-Conakry; Prof. Kwame Karikari, founder of Media Foundation for West Africa; Emeritus Professor Takyiwaa Manuh; Prof Mahmoud Mamdani; Prof El Hadji Ibrahima Mboup; Mr Nicole Mikolo, a journalist from Congo-Brazzaville; Human Rights Lawyer Fatou Jagne Senghore; Dr Jean-Pierre Tchanou; Dr Alioune Tine; and Dr. Gilles Yabi.