Senegalese Prime Minister Ousmane Sonko on Friday dismissed this week’s military takeover in neighbouring Guinea-Bissau as a sham and called for the interrupted elections there to be completed, adding his voice to growing regional condemnation of the latest power grab in a country long seen as a key hub for cocaine trafficking.
The putsch has underlined Guinea-Bissau’s chronic instability. The small West African state has a long record of military interference in politics and has repeatedly been named by international agencies as a transit point for Latin American drugs headed to Europe.
Soldiers seized power on Wednesday, halting the announcement of results from presidential and legislative elections held at the weekend. On Thursday, army officers named Major-General Horta Inta-a as transitional head of state, saying he would oversee a one-year transition period starting immediately.
The presidential race pitted incumbent Umaro Sissoco Embalo against 47-year-old challenger Fernando Dias, a relative newcomer who claimed early tallies showed him on course for victory.
“What happened in Guinea-Bissau was a sham. We want the electoral process to continue,” Sonko told lawmakers in Dakar. “The electoral commission must be allowed to declare the winner.”
Appearing publicly for the first time since being installed, Inta-a defended the coup as necessary to prevent “narcotraffickers” from capturing Guinea-Bissau’s democracy, and pledged to steer a short transition.
Embalo flew to Senegal on Thursday aboard a special aircraft following the intervention of the West African regional bloc ECOWAS, Senegal’s foreign ministry said.
ECOWAS on Thursday condemned the coup, suspended Guinea-Bissau from its bodies and demanded that soldiers return to barracks. It also announced plans to dispatch a high-level mediation mission to Bissau.
Nigeria, which hosts ECOWAS headquarters, separately denounced the power grab and urged the junta to guarantee the safety of election observers.
Among those observers was former Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan, who was in the country under the banner of the West African Elders Forum. His whereabouts were unclear for several hours on Thursday, but a Nigerian foreign ministry spokesperson later said he had managed to leave Guinea-Bissau on a special flight and was safe.
The European Union and African Union Commission chairperson Mahmoud Ali Youssouf have likewise urged a rapid return to constitutional order in Guinea-Bissau.