Thousands demonstrate against Guinea-Bissau's electoral census

Thousands of people on Sunday demonstrated in Guinea Bissau against what they describe as the lack of transparency in the electoral census in the run-up to the November 18 legislative elections.

The march which was organised by 20 opposition parties, took place in central Bissau and ended up at the seat of government.

“All we were asking for was full compliance with the law. The law of the census, the electoral law, but above all the right of citizens,” Braima Camara, President of MADEM said.

“Thousands of people have not yet been registered, it’s too crazy. That is why we are demonstrating,” a protester Baba Diao said.

“The census is not going well. Nothing is going well,” a protester Midana said.

The month-long electoral registration in Guinea-Bissau ended on October 20.

The parliamentary elections should resolve the political crisis that the country has been going through since August 2015 when the president dismissed the Prime Minister, Domingos Simoes Pereira.

According to the Ministry of Territorial Administration, the census aims to register nearly one million voters from the country’s 1.7 million population.

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