By Enyichukwu Enemanna
The seizure of ballots and vote tallies by armed men as well as the destruction of servers storing results were responsible for the inability to successfully complete the November 23 presidential electoral process, the Guinea-Bissau electoral commission said on Tuesday.
Army officers in the West African nation had seized power on November 26, a day before the electoral commission was due to announce the result of the bitterly contested election.
The commission said soldiers had invaded its offices across the country, took possession of its sensitive materials and destroyed some, apparently ensure to results were announced.
“We do not have the material and logistic conditions to follow through with the electoral process,” Idrissa Djalo, a senior official of the electoral commission, said in a statement.
Public buildings came under attack when the army announced that it had seized power in the West African nation last week.
The coup leader, Major-General Horta Inta-a was on November 27 sworn in as the new transitional President, putting on hold the election process.
Guinea-Bissau’s new military leaders who have promised one year transition plan are facing pressure, particularly from the regional bloc, the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) to restore constitutional order and to allow the electoral process to be completed.
Heritage Times HT on Monday reported that a high-level delegation from the bloc, led by Sierra Leone’s President Julius Maada Bio, met with the military leaders and electoral commission officials in Bissau.
The commission’s top official, Djalo said it had told the delegation that a group of unidentified armed and hooded individuals had stormed and ransacked its premises on November 26.
“They confiscated the computers of all 45 staff members who were at the commission that day,” he said, adding that all election tally sheets from the different regions were seized, and the server where the results were stored had been destroyed.
“It is impossible to complete the electoral process without the tally sheets from the regions,” Djalo said.
ECOWAS leaders, who have threatened sanctions against those disrupting the constitutional order, are set to meet on December 14 to discuss the crisis.
Both the incumbent President Umaro Sissoco Embaló and opposition candidate, Fernando Dias da Costa, claimed victory.
Former Nigerian leader, Goodluck Jonathan who led an observation mission accused Embaló of staging the coup, fearing that he could lose the election.
