Electoral Commission In Coup-Struck Guinea-Bissau Says Vote Tally Destroyed

Guinea-Bissau’s electoral commission said Tuesday that armed men had destroyed most of the vote count from the country’s election, and it would be unable to publish results.

The military took control of the Portuguese-speaking nation last Wednesday — a day before the provisional results of national elections were due to be announced.

“Today, we are unable to conclude the electoral process,” the deputy executive secretary of the country’s National Electoral Commission (CNE), Idrissa Djalo, told journalists.

Reading a statement to reporters, Djalo said all of the tally sheets were destroyed except for those from Bissau.

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On Monday, members of the CNE met with representatives from the West African regional bloc ECOWAS, who asked whether the body could release the results.

“We answered them no,” Djalo told reporters, describing how in the morning before the coup, “armed men wearing balaclavas burst into the tabulation room”.

According to Djalo, the men arrested the CNE president and five Supreme Court judges who were present, and additionally threatened 45 agents.

“They seized their phones and computers and destroyed all the tally sheets. We only have the tally sheets from Bissau,” Djalo said.

“The main server was destroyed. The tally sheets from Oio and Cacheu, which were being transferred, were intercepted and confiscated by other men. All the equipment was destroyed,” he said.

CNE president Mpabi Cabi, who was detained for five days, made his first public appearance alongside Djalo.

The true motives for the coup in Guinea-Bissau remain unclear, with speculation in some quarters that it was carried out with the blessing of President Umaro Sissoco Embalo, who has since taken refuge in the Republic of Congo following his ouster.

Sandwiched between Senegal and Guinea, Guinea-Bissau had already undergone four coups and a host of attempted takeovers since gaining independence from Portugal in 1974.

Among the world’s poorest countries, it has now joined the likes of Burkina Faso, Mali, Madagascar, Niger and Sudan on the list of states suspended from the African Union following coups.