Just days after he was appointed as interim president of Guinea-Bissau, Cipriano Cassama from the former ruling coalition, PAIGC has resigned.
Cassama’s party lost last year’s presidential run-off but has been challenging the election results in court.
Although he didn’t stand for the election, his party appointed him interim president moments after the winning candidate in the election, Umaro Sissoco Embalo swore himself into power.
PAIGC has dominated politics in Guinea Bissau since independence from Portugal in 1974. It appointed parliamentary leader Cipriano Cassamá, as president to level things up.
It meant Guinea Bissau had two presidents and two prime ministers. But Cassamá says he is letting go the position due to death threats.
He said “Given the death threats against me and my bodyguards, I have decided to give up the role of interim president for which I was nominated, to avoid a bloodbath in Guinea-Bissau.”
“I fear for my physical integrity,” he said in a press statement adding that “My life and that of my family is in danger. I have no security.”
Embalo who won the presidential run-off refused to wait for the courts to give final judgment before taking over power.
At his swearing in, outgoing president Jose Mario Vaz was at that event and placed the presidential sash over his shoulders.
Embalo, a 47-year-old former general and prime minister, won 53.55% of the votes in the December 29, 2019 runoff.
He has already moved into the presidential palace and appointed Nuno Gomes Nabiam as prime minister and sacked the internationally recognised incumbent Aristides Gomes.
Soldiers quickly occupied the prime minister’s office and Gomes denounced what he described as “attempted coup”, in a statement on his Facebook page.
Guinea-Bissau has been very unstable since independence, recording four coups and 16 attempted coups since 1974, the last one in 2012.
Source: Africafeeds.com
