Guinea-Bissau, a West African country known for its political crises and coups, votes for a new leader today to replace late president Joao Bernardo “Nino” Vieira, who was assassinated more than three months ago.
The ballot in the tiny country flanked by Senegal and Guinea is expected to be peaceful, but analysts say the real test for the former Portuguese colony will come afterward.
The military has held sway over the country’s top politicians for decades, and since the introduction of multiparty politics 15 years ago no president has completed the constitutionally mandated five-year term in office. The poor African country also has seen drug money flow to corrupt officials as smugglers pay bribes to use its coastline and remote airstrips for cocaine transshipments.
“The real test for Guinea-Bissau is not whether the election is held peacefully, but whether state institutions have the capacity to prevent the country from sliding into chaos in the aftermath,” consulting group IHS Global Insight said. “The military has been far too dominant in Bissau-Guinean politics ... There is a real need for the international community to offer support.”
Vieira was murdered on March 2, just hours after his longtime rival, the head of the armed forces, was killed by a bomb. Little was done to investigate the killings and no arrests have been made.
Despite fears the army would take over, though, the transition has been smooth. The head of parliament, Raimundo Pereira, was swiftly named interim president and is leading the interim government organizing today’s vote.
The ballot is going ahead, despite the slaying earlier this month by security forces of presidential candidate Baciro Dabo, whose family denied allegations he had been involved in a coup plot.
Eleven candidates are vying for the presidency, but only three are considered serious contenders.
The first is Malam Bacai Sanha, who served as interim president for a year following the country’s 1998 to 1999 civil war and head of the national assembly from 1994 to 1999. Sanha is a candidate of the main political party, the African Party for the Independence of Guinea and Cape Verde, or PAIGC, which holds a majority in parliament.
The second candidate is Kumba Yala, a former president who was elected in 2000 but became deeply unpopular and was overthrown in a bloodless coup three years later. Yala, a former philosophy professor, is a candidate for the opposition Party for Social Renewal.
Henrique Rosa is the third key canddidate and served as interim head of state after Yala was ousted in the 2003 coup. A businessman and the race’s only independent, Rosa helped organize 2005 elections which brought Vieira to power.
Since independence from Portugal in 1974, Guinea-Bissau has been beset by a series of coups, military revolts and political assassinations. The lawlessness has in recent years attracted South American drugs traffickers, who have used the country as a transit point for shipping cocaine to Europe.
Given the history, many voters are skeptical the next president will be able to enforce the rule of law in a country where the military is deeply involved in politics and the judiciary is weak.
“It is not normal in a democratic state ... to have a group come and kill the president and nobody is accountable,” said Vladimir Monteiro, information officer at the UN peace-building mission.
The violence and instability that have wracked Guinea-Bissau since independence also have taken their toll on the country’s economic development. The nation sits at the bottom of most economic and health indices, ranking third from last on last year’s Human Development Index.
The majority of people live without electricity or clean running water, and there are few job opportunities for young people. The average life expectancy in Guinea-Bissau is just 46 years.
About 600,000 of Guinea-Bissau’s 1.5 million people are registered to vote in today’s ballot.
In the tiny capital, Bissau, colorful campaign posters cover worn-out buildings and wrap around lampposts promising peace and security.
While Yala’s supporters wear his trademark red woolen hat, Sanha fans imitate their candidate by pointing to an imaginary wristwatch and chanting his campaign slogan: “The time is now!”
Henrique Rosa’s poster promises peace and development.
SEEKING CHANGE: A hospital worker said she did not vote in previous elections, but ‘now I can see that maybe my vote can change the system and the country’ Voting closed yesterday across the Solomon Islands in the south Pacific nation’s first general election since the government switched diplomatic allegiance from Taiwan to Beijing and struck a secret security pact that has raised fears of the Chinese navy gaining a foothold in the region. The Solomon Islands’ closer relationship with China and a troubled domestic economy weighed on voters’ minds as they cast their ballots. As many as 420,000 registered voters had their say across 50 national seats. For the first time, the national vote also coincided with elections for eight of the 10 local governments. Esther Maeluma cast her vote in the
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
HYPOCRISY? The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs yesterday asked whether Biden was talking about China or the US when he used the word ‘xenophobic’ US President Joe Biden on Wednesday called for a hike in steel tariffs on China, accusing Beijing of cheating as he spoke at a campaign event in Pennsylvania. Biden accused China of xenophobia, too, in a speech to union members in Pittsburgh. “They’re not competing, they’re cheating. They’re cheating and we’ve seen the damage here in America,” Biden said. Chinese steel companies “don’t need to worry about making a profit because the Chinese government is subsidizing them so heavily,” he said. Biden said he had called for the US Trade Representative to triple the tariff rates for Chinese steel and aluminum if Beijing was