Guinea-Bissau - December 2023

Guinea-Bissau is again without a functioning legislature, only six months after the most recent elections. President Umaro Sissoco Embaló issued a decree on 4 December ordering the National Assembly (Assembleia Nacional Popular) dissolved, following a violent confrontation between the elements of the presidential guard and the National Guard that the President described as an attempted coup d’état. The June election was won by the opposition coalition PAI-Terra Ranka, led by the African Party for the Independence of Guinea and Cape Verde (Partido Africano para a Independência da Guiné e Cabo Verde, PAIGC), resulting in a partisan division between the President and the cabinet. The incident that triggered this decree involved the arrest of two members of the cabinet on charges of corruption, and an attempt on the part of members of the National Guard to free them. President Embaló had also dissolved the previous legislature in February 2022 following an attempted coup.

Sources: Africa News, Radio France Internationale, France24