Guinea Bissau ex-PM Embalo declared winner of runoff

Umaro Sissoco Embalo of Guinea Bissau’s opposition party has been declared winner of the second round of presidential election held on December 29 last year.

The National Electoral Commission (CNE) of Guinea-Bissau made the announcement Tuesday following a request by the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) for verification results.

He beat his contender Domingos Simoes Pereira by about 54% to 46%, the commission said. Thus a new stage has been reached in the Guinea-Bissau crisis, even if the dispute remains far from being resolved.

“There was absolutely nothing, it was just a consolidation of the figures announced by the CNE, and we were there to see it. Practically nothing has changed”, Vençã Mendes, a representative of the PAIGC candidate said.

The ruling party PAIGC took to Twitter to “once again condemn the electoral commission for the lack of transparency”, heralding a lengthening of legal proceedings.

Pereira has vowed t contest the results.

AFP