Guinea-Bissau president to run for second term, backtracking on vow to step down

4/3/2025 19:05

Guinea-Bissau's President Umaro Sissoco Embalo said on Monday he would run for a second term in November, backtracking on earlier vows to step down and potentially stoking tensions over when his current term ends and over postponed elections.



Embalo, after a trip to Russia, Azerbaijan and Hungary, told reporters at the airport: "I will be a candidate in my own succession."



Embalo has been at odds with the political opposition in the coup-prone West African nation over when his current five-year term, which began in 2020, ends. The opposition says it ran out at the end of February, while the Supreme Court of Justice has ruled that it ends on September 4.