PAIGC rejects exclusion from elections in Guinea-Bissau

The PAIGC leadership stated that it will not accept being left out of the elections in Guinea-Bissau, on the day the court reiterated the exclusion of the candidacy led by the historic liberation party.

The decision came late Tuesday night, the day for which an extraordinary meeting of the national secretariat was announced and whose decisions were published in a short statement on the party's official website.

The meeting took place on the same day that the Supreme Court of Justice (STJ) called a second press conference to clarify the rejection of the registration of the candidacy of the Plataforma Aliança Inclusiva (PAI) – Terra Ranka, led by the PAIGC, for the legislative elections and of the party president, Domingos Simões Pereira, for the presidency of the Republic.

The exclusion of the PAIGC (African Party for the Independence of Guinea and Cape Verde), for the first time, from an electoral race is marking the general, legislative and presidential elections, called for November 23.

In the statement, the party leadership states that it does not accept “holding the general elections on November 23, 2025 without the participation of the PAI-Terra Ranka Coalition and the PAIGC candidate in the presidential election.”

The national secretariat also approved “a motion of confidence” in Domingos Simões Pereira, who continues to present himself as a candidate for the presidential elections.

The motion comes after a group of leaders who are part of the presidentially initiated government blamed Simões Pereira for the current situation and called for an extraordinary congress to clarify the leadership.

The statement makes no mention of any measures the party might take to counter the court ruling.

The STJ's decision is final , said Mamadu Embaló, spokesman for Guinea-Bissau's highest judicial body, on Tuesday, as quoted by the Guinean press.

The spokesperson recalled that the deadline for registering applications was September 25 and that those responsible for PAI-Terra Ranka submitted the application on September 19.

As I had already mentioned in a previous communication, the court understood that conditions were not met to comply with the deadlines of the electoral law, which gives 24 hours for the court to rule and 72 hours (three days) for the proponents to correct any irregularities.

With the weekend and a holiday in between, there were three working days remaining, something that the court plenary understood created an “objective impossibility of assessing the request”.

To the previous explanations, the spokesperson for the judicial body added that the decision “is definitive in nature” and is therefore not subject to appeal, which implies that the objection presented by the coalition will not be accepted.

PAI-Terra Ranka won the 2023 legislative elections with a majority, but was removed from power after half a year, with the dissolution of the National Popular Assembly, chaired by Domingos Simões Pereira, who was deposed from office.

The President of the Republic, Umaro Sissoco Embaló, appointed a government initiated by the President that included several PAIGC leaders.

Sissoco Embaló contested the second round of the 2019 presidential elections with Domingos Simões Pereira and is running for a second term, with his candidacy and that of the coalition that supports him, the Republican Platform, being the first to be confirmed by the STJ.

In total, 15 candidates were presented for the elections and the provisional list, published by the STJ and disseminated by the Guinean media, shows 12 admitted, two rejected and one withdrew.

The withdrawal is from former Prime Minister Nuno Gomes Nabiam, who after having requested registration, withdrew it and appeared publicly to support Umaro Sissoco Embaló.

Nabiam's support for Sissoco Embaló and the appointment of Braima Camará as Prime Minister in August broke up the API Cabas Garandi coalition, which brought together prominent Guinean political leaders who challenged the current President.

One of the best-known faces was Fernando Dias, from the Social Renewal Party, who was admitted as an independent candidate for the November presidential elections, but the API Cabas Garandi coalition is not on the list.

The candidacy of former president José Mário Vaz, known as Jomav, who lost the race for a second term in 2019 to Sissoco Embaló, was also admitted.

The court is expected to release the final list of candidates in the coming days.