Guinea-Bissau: Umaro Sissoco Embaló on the way to cohabitation

After the presidential rout during the legislative elections, Umaro Sissoco Embaló will have to appoint his opponent, Domingos Simões Pereira, Prime Minister.

It's a real snub for Umaro Sissoco Embaló. While the Bissau-Guinean legislative elections took place on June 4, we had to wait until Thursday to find out who was the big winner of this election. But especially the big loser. Because the party of the president, the Movement for the democratic alternation (Madem), obtained only 29 of the 102 seats of the Parliament. That is less than a third of the seats.

But it is above all the victory of the PAI-Terra Ranka coalition that is surprising. If we suspected that this coalition, led by the African Party for the Independence of Guinea and Cape Verde (PAIGC), would end up in the lead, we never imagined that it would obtain an absolute majority. Indeed, the coalition should finish with 54 out of 102 seats, according to provisional figures from the National Electoral Commission.

As usual, but above all in the country's Constitution, the future Prime Minister should therefore come from the opposition. It will undoubtedly be Domingos Simões Pereira, the president of the PAIGC, who would take the post. This was confirmed by the Bissau-Guinean president.

Embaló puts water in its wine

The cohabitation already promises to be historic. Already because the situation is catastrophic for Madem. The presidential party certainly lost the legislative elections. But above all very heavily. The Madem hoped to have a majority, even relative, to be able to revise the Constitution. It shouldn't be.

For four years, will the cohabitation be serene? In any case, this is the wish of the PAIGC, whose leader is asking for time. "We ask that the adversaries go in the direction of contributing to reducing the suffering of the people of Guinea-Bissau", indicates the coalition which won the election.

Domingo Simões Pereira promises, for his part, to "open a new page in the political history of the country" and "a new beginning". Embaló, meanwhile, has accepted the results of these legislative elections and promises to "take a step back for the well-being of the nation", a few days after saying that he would refuse cohabitation with the leader of the PAIGC.

“In politics, there are no permanent enemies. If the Terra-Ranka coalition proposes its head of the list, I will appoint him as Prime Minister of Guinea-Bissau”, indicated the president who assures that he will “cohabit with the next government”. In Guinea-Bissau, a new era has just dawned…