Guinea Bissau President Embalo says he will not run for a second term

12/9/2024 18:18

        Guinea Bissau's President Umaro Cissoko Embalo said on Thursday he would not run for a second term in elections in November.
        
        Embalo, 51, was elected in January 2020 to succeed outgoing president Jose Mario Vaz. He defeated runner-up Domingos Simoes Pereira with 54% of the vote and would have been eligible for another term in office.
        
        The unexpected announcement could trigger a power vacuum and heighten political instability in the coup-prone country of around two million people.
        
        At the end of a council of ministers on Thursday night, Embalo said his wife had dissuaded him from running again.
        
        He said his successor would not be Pereira nor two other opposition politicians, Braima Camara and Nuno Gomes Na Bian, without elaborating further or naming a successor.
        
        Embalo, an ex-army general who served as prime minister under Vaz, inherited a long-running political impasse in a country where coups and unrest have been common since independence from Portugal in 1974.