Guinea-Bissau: President Dissolves Parliament After Failed Coup

Facts

• Guinea-Bissau's Pres. Umaro Sissoco Embalo on Monday dissolved the country's opposition-dominated parliament following what he described as an 'attempted coup d'etat' last week.¹
• Embalo argued that 'complicity' between the National Guard and 'certain political interests within the State apparatus' had made it impossible for the state's institutions to function normally, adding a date for legislative elections will be 'set at the opportune moment, in line with the constitution.'²
• On Thursday, fighting erupted between Presidential Guard special forces and National Guard soldiers in the capital Bissau, after the latter freed two high-ranking government officials who had been arrested on corruption charges.³
• Embalo was declared the winner of a run-off election — disputed by the opposition — in December 2019 and survived an attempt to overthrow him in February 2022. Three months later, he dissolved parliament for the first time, citing 'unresolvable differences' with the legislature.⁴
• One of Embalo's main rivals, Domingos Simoes Pereira — the country's former prime minister and leader of the PAIGC party [African Party for the Independence of Guinea and Cape Verde], which had won June's parliamentary elections — rejected Monday's announcement as unconstitutional.⁵
• Since its independence from Portugal in 1974, the West African country has experienced a string of coups and attempted coups, often linked to the government's fight against drug trafficking. In the 2000s, Guinea-Bissau emerged as a transit country for cocaine trafficked between Latin America and Europe.⁶

Sources: ¹DW, ²France 24, ³Al Jazeera, ⁴RFI, ⁵Reuters and ⁶ABC News.

Narratives

• Narrative A, as provided by Africa News. The forcible release of senior government officials by the parliament-controlled National Guard not only jeopardized national security but also amounted to a failed coup attempt. As certain elements of parliament preferred to protect members of the executive suspected of corruption rather than ensure the application of the law, Pres. Embalo had no choice but to dissolve parliament. Guinea-Bissau will only achieve stability if the constitutional principles of democracy are respected.
• Narrative B, as provided by Reuters. While Embalo senses a conspiracy to overthrow him, it's he who is carrying out a constitutional coup d'état by dissolving the opposition-controlled parliament. Since the legislature can't be dissolved less than a year after its election, Embalo has already used alleged cases of corruption in the past to disempower parliament and abolish the semi-presidential system. The people of Guinea-Bissau deserve a president who respects the principle of separation of powers and rejects a dictatorship.