BISSAU, Guinea-Bissau — Bissau-Guineans voted Sunday in a extremely anticipated election to fill Guinea-Bissau’s nationwide legislature, greater than a 12 months after the West African nation’s president dissolved parliament.

Nearly 1 million voters had been registered to elect greater than 100 lawmakers from six events with lively seats within the National People’s Assembly, in response to the Centre for Democracy and Development, an African human rights group.

Guinea-Bissau is a small nation that gained independence from Portugal practically 5 many years in the past. The nation has endured continued political turmoil, together with a number of coups, since then.

President Umaro Sissoco Embalo, a former military normal, took workplace after he was declared the winner of a December 2019 runoff election. He survived a February 2022 coup try when assailants armed with machine weapons and AK-47s attacked the federal government palace.

Since assuming workplace, Embalo has cracked down on civic freedoms, whereas authorities our bodies have misplaced vital independence, in response to analysts. He dissolved the parliament in May 2022 and postponed the legislative election scheduled for the next December.

Lucia Bird Ruiz Benitez de Lugo, director of the West Africa Observatory on the Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime, mentioned that Embalo has consolidated his grip on energy since his controversial inauguration in February 2020.

PHOTOS: Guinea-Bissau votes to elect legislature greater than a 12 months after president dissolved parliament

“These elections are key in determining how much support the ruling party retains in parliament,” she mentioned. “They will shape how isolated, or otherwise, the president, who has strained relations with the powerful military, will be during the remaining 18 months of his tenure.”

Polls opened early Sunday with greater than 3,500 voting stations anticipated within the nation and the diaspora. This is the nation’s seventh legislative election since opening a multi-party system practically three many years in the past.

Citizens hope this vote will assist set the nation on the proper path.

“This is a decisive election for the country, given the situation in which the country finds itself at the moment. Everyone is witness to the difficulties experienced,” voter Justino dos Santos Leguissimo mentioned.

Others had been grateful that they had been in a position to vote in any respect.

“Today is a very special day for all Guineans, because we have finally come to exercise our civic rights again,” mentioned Eunice Mafalda Lopes Queita Esteves, who solid her vote.

Results from Sunday’s election had been anticipated to be contested after the outcomes are introduced within the coming days.

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Sam Mednick reported from Dakar, Senegal.

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