‘Government unprepared for 24 November poll’

Guinea Bissau will struggle to hold legislative elections on the planned 24 November date, a Minister said on Friday, compounding the small West African country's political instability. President Umaro Sissoco Embalo had announced the date after dissolving Parliament in December 2023 in response to armed clashes three days earlier which he described as an attempted coup. ‘Technically, we are not in a position to carry out the programme. The time available no longer allows us to do so because of the many logistical and financial difficulties,’ said Minister for Territorial Administration Aristides Ocante da Silva. News24 reports that the uncertainty surrounding the legislative elections is mirrored by similar doubts over the vote to replace Embalo as head of state of the Portuguese-speaking nation. A coalition formed around the African Party for the Independence of Guinea and Cape Verde, long opposed to the President, had held an absolute majority in Parliament since elections in June 2023. That forced Embalo into a tense cohabitation. As one of the poorest nations in the world, Guinea Bissau has also struggled to find the money to fund the vote.