President of Guinea-Bissau, Umaro Cissoko Embalo, declared on Thursday that he would not seek reelection in the forthcoming presidential election in November.

The 51-year-old Embalo who succeeded replace departing President José Mario Vaz would have been qualified for a second term in office after defeating Domingos Simoes Pereira, the runner-up, with 54% of the vote in 2020.

The shocking revelation might lead to a leadership vacuum and increase political unrest in the two million-person nation that is prone to coups. Embalo stated that his wife had talked him out of running for office again at the conclusion of a council of ministers meeting on Thursday evening.

Without providing any details or designating a replacement, he declared that neither Pereira nor two other opposition lawmakers, Braima Camara and Nuno Gomes Na Bian, would be his successor.

After serving as prime minister under Vaz, Embalo, an ex-army general, took over a protracted political deadlock in a nation where uprisings and coups have been frequent since the country’s 1974 independence from Portugal.

Embalo claims that during his administration, there have been two attempts to topple him, the most recent one being in December 2023. Days later, he dissolved parliament for the second time since taking office as a result of the attempts.

Under the current political structure in Guinea Bissau, the government is chosen by the dominant party or coalition. However, the president has the authority to revoke it under specific conditions, which frequently result in unrest and political impasse.

Like most African countries, the country suffers underdevelopment and has become

a significant hub for the trafficking of cocaine. About 2.63 tonnes of cocaine were taken into custody by police on a Venezuelan-arrived aircraft last Saturday.

Two opposition candidates from the recently concluded elections in Algeria have formally contested the provisional result, sharply criticising election officials and contesting the vote total.

The first move towards contesting the election results was taken by Islamist Abdellali Hassani Cherif and socialist Youcef Aouchiche, who filed appeals with Algeria’s Constitutional Court. Abdelmadjid Tebboune, the incumbent president, won the election with 94.7% of the vote.

According to Algerian law, the court has ten days from the time the provisional election results are announced to decide on the appeals. Should a ruling be rendered, the electoral body might be forced to redo the totals for each candidate without doubting Tebboune’s victory.

Both candidates criticized Mohamed Charfi, the head of Algeria’s National Independent Electoral Authority (ANIE), the day before they filed their appeals.

“President Tebboune didn’t need this stuffing. We knew he’d be reelected, but with these results, ANIE hasn’t done him any favours,” Cherif said. “We want our votes — the votes of the people who voted for us — to be returned to us. I know it won’t change the outcome of the vote, but it will go down in history.”

At a press conference, Aouchiche’s campaign manager presented visuals that he said demonstrated how the results had been tampered with, labelling the result a “shameful and gross manipulation.”

He referred to the 1970s, when the only recognised political party in the nation ran its preferred candidate unopposed, saying, “These results, which do not correspond at all to the number of votes communicated to us by the regional delegations of the same ANIE, are a disgrace for the Algeria of 2024, taking us back to that era.”

The disparities in the number of votes counted to determine the outcome and the turnout statistics released by election officials the day before have been criticised by the two contenders. Tebboune joined them late on Sunday, September 9, joining the public outrage that his rivals had stoked against ANIE.

Campaign managers for Tebboune, Aouchiche, and Cherif questioned the results released by ANIE and noted that they didn’t match the regional data provided by local authorities in a joint statement.

“We inform national public opinion that inaccuracies, contradictions, ambiguities and inconsistencies were noted in the figures when the provisional results of the presidential election were announced by the chairman of the National Independent Election Authority,” they wrote.

Algeria has a system of universal suffrage. The President. who is chosen for a five-year term that is renewable once is in charge of both the High Security Council and the Council of Ministers. The Prime Minister, who serves as the head of state, is chosen by him. The Council of Ministers is chosen by the Prime Minister.