Guinea-Bissau: Terra Ranka sees meeting between ECOWAS and the president of the National Assembly as an “insult”

The Inclusive Alliance Platform coalition (PAI-Terra Ranka) refused to meet with the delegation of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) – on a mission in Guinea-Bissau until the end of the week – considering this morning's meeting with the “self-proclaimed” president of the National People's Assembly of Guinea-Bissau (ANP), Satu Camará, an “insult”.

The organization's work agenda in Bissau is just beginning, but for António Samba Baldé, interim coordinator of PAI-Terra Ranka, “the presence of the ECOWAS mission is a fiasco and a huge failure,” he told Jornal Económico (JE).

According to the leader of the Guinean Social Democratic Party (PSD), the coalition has sent several letters to ECOWAS in recent months “clearly explaining how things work” in Guinea-Bissau, so it was with “surprise” that they learned of the meeting with Satu Camará, coordinator of the presidential wing of Madem-G15, following a notification from “the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Guinea-Bissau itself, which wrote a letter to the President informing her of the delegation’s visit to her office”, he explained.

“We could not have accepted that, right at the beginning of the mission’s work, they would contact her as president of the ANP’s Permanent Commission”, he justified, qualifying Satu Camará as “usurper of the presidency of the Permanent Commission of the National Assembly”.

“Our demand is nothing more than scrupulous compliance with the Constitution of the Republic, which has been constantly violated by Mr. Embaló,” he continued.

According to António Samba Baldé, PAI-Terra Ranka handed over to ECOWAS “ all the legal instruments” necessary to understand the situation upon arrival, he explained, including the Constitution of the Republic, the Electoral Law, the rules of procedure of the National People's Assembly and even the Statutes of Deputies.

“We were kind enough to do some in-depth work and translate these documents into English and French to better equip the ECOWAS Commission to understand what our demands are. They have great difficulty deciphering them, because they are all presidential regimes,” he explained.

António Samba Baldé also expressed solidarity with the Inclusive Patriotic Alliance “Cabas Garandi”, which he denounced, in a letter sent to ECOWAS and to which JE had access, not having been included in the work programme of the communiqué.

In Bissau, the mission of the 12-country African organization – which has shrunk with the departure of Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger – is clear: to mediate the political crisis and contribute to a consensus around holding presidential and legislative elections.

On Sunday, Guinea-Bissau's opposition demanded that general elections be held within 90 days . PAI-Terra Ranka, which won the last legislative elections, stated in a joint statement with API (Inclusive Patriotic Alliance) and the Popular Front that Sissoco Embaló will become “former President of the Republic” on Thursday, February 27, exactly five years since he took office in a symbolic ceremony.

On that same day, which was marked by the arrival of the ECOWAS delegation in Bissau, the President of Guinea-Bissau announced the date of November 30 for holding general elections in the country , rejecting any conversation with the parties about the electoral calendar.

“People are making propaganda about the arrival of the ECOWAS mission. It is merely a contact mission. I am the one who authorized its arrival. ECOWAS does not rule in Guinea-Bissau or in any other country” of the organization, said Umaro Sissoco Embaló, this Monday.

Asked by JE whether the refusal to meet with ECOWAS could be a “missed opportunity” for the coalition, António Samba Baldé recalls the contacts made in recent times with the community.

“We are publicly expressing our outrage at the presence of Sissoco Embaló in the Presidency for three years. ECOWAS knows exactly what we are demanding,” he said.