ADDIS ABABA, Jan 1 (NNN-ENA) – The African Union Election Observation Mission (AUEOM), to Guinea-Bissau’s presidential election, disclosed that the election was “conducted in peace and security, necessary for the free expression of suffrage.”
“The AUEOM congratulates the Bissau Guinean people, for their political maturity and for their ownership of the electoral process. It noted that the vote was conducted in peace and security, necessary for the free expression of suffrage,” the AUEOM to Guinea-Bissau, said.
“Notwithstanding the few rare incidents, the election campaign and the vote went on hitch-free over the entire national territory. Overall, the election was free, regular and transparent,” the 55-member pan African bloc’s election observation mission disclosed.
The AU, which deployed a high-level observation mission to Guinea-Bissau, that was led by the Sao Tome and Principe’s former Prime Minister, Joaquim Raphael Branco, also stressed that the second round of the presidential election on Dec 29, “marks a decisive milestone in the country’s political history.”
Since no candidate won more than 50 percent of the ballots during the first round, that was held on Nov 24, the top two candidates, Domingos Simoes Pereira, candidate of the African Party for the Independence of Guinea and Cape Verde, and Umaro Sissoco Embalo, supported by the Movement for Democratic Alternation, competed for the presidency of Guinea-Bissau for the next five-year period.
The National Election Commission (NEC) of Guinea-Bissau disclosed, results would be announced on Jan 1, and it urged candidates not to disclose the results, since “the publication of the results is exclusively reserved for the NEC.”
The AUEOM, which welcomed “the spirit of patriotism and fair play of the candidates in the election,” also called for calm and restraint, while they await the announcement.
It also called on the NEC to reinforce and harmonise the monitoring of electoral personnel in the polling stations, while the presidential candidates have been urged to resort to legal means in the case of election contests, promote gender balance and youth involvement in politics, give priority to consensus and the competition of ideas, as well as, to endeavour to avoid conflicts of identity.– NNN-ENA