The court claims that it is impossible to meet the deadlines for assessing the candidacy led by Domingos Simões Pereira, who is proposing to run again for the presidency of the Republic against the current head of state, Umaro Sissoco Embaló, to whom he lost the 2019 elections.
“Absurdity is becoming the norm in our country,” Domingos Simões Pereira told Lusa, in response to the court ruling that, for the first time, excludes the African Party for the Independence of Guinea and Cabo Verde (PAIGC), which leads the PAI-Terra Ranka coalition, the signatory of the rejected candidacy, from the elections.
The Inclusive Alliance Platform (PAI) – Terra Ranka, composed of five parties, won an absolute majority in the June 2023 legislative elections and was removed from power in December of the same year when President Embaló dissolved the parliament of which Domingos Simões Pereira was the speaker.
The head of state appointed a presidential government, and after almost two years, general, presidential and legislative elections are scheduled for 23 November.
The deadline for submitting candidacies ends on Thursday, and the candidacy considered in Guinea-Bissau to be the main opponent of the current president was rejected by the Supreme Court of Justice, which has constitutional jurisdiction in the country, in a ruling dated 23 September.
The news comes today, on the public holiday celebrating 52 years of Guinea-Bissau’s independence from Portugal.
In the ruling, to which Lusa had access, signed by six judges, it is alleged that in the event of irregularities, the 72-hour (three-day) period that the applicant would have to correct them exceeds the deadline for submitting applications, which is 25 September.
“We ourselves still don’t quite understand what that was all about. (The court’s) refusal to examine the documents submitted is something we find difficult to understand,” said Domingos Simões Pereira. Simões Pereira does not want to believe that alleged “threats to prevent the candidacy” are being carried out.
The leader of the PAIGC and the PAI-Terra Ranka coalition believes that this supreme court decision “would be depriving the Guinea-Bissau people of their right to make a free choice, by treating the ineligibility of a historic party that fought for freedom as a mere administrative matter.”
The PAI-Terra Ranka coalition brings together five parties, namely the PAIGC, the Guinean Democratic Movement (MDG), the Democratic Convergence Party (PCD), the Social Democratic Party (PSD) and the Union for Change.
Domingos Simões Pereira told Lusa that the coalition has a team working to request clarification from the Court on Thursday.
