Guinea-Bissau: Beaten candidate urges foreign diplomats to assess alleged fraud

The defeated candidate in Guinea-Bissau’s presidential elections has urged the international community to “urgently” take a stance on what he said was evidence of electoral fraud submitted to the country’s courts.

In a letter addressed to ambassadors and heads of accredited diplomatic missions in Bissau, Domingos Simões Pereira of the PAIGC, the largest party in parliament, requests that their countries and institutions make a statement “on the need for clarification of fraud denounced” to the relevant authorities.

Among the entities to whom he sent the letter was Mauro Vieira, president of the United Nations peacekeeping commission in Guinea-Bissau, to the ambassadors of Portugal, Antonio Alves de Carvalho, of Angola, Daniel Rosa, of the US, Tulinabo Mushingi, and of France, Jean-Louis Zoel.

Simões Pereira recalls that these entities and countries have always considered the credibility of the elections and of their results as crucial for sustaining social peace in Guinea-Bissau.

The PAIGC candidate has formally appealed to the Supreme Court of Justice, which in Guinea-Bissau also has the powers of electoral court, on what he says is a set of evidence that proves fraud in the process of the 29 December election.

The court is still assessing the dossier.

In his letter to diplomats, Simões Pereira encloses the evidence that he says proves the alleged fraud.

According to the provisional official results, General Umaro Sissoco Embaló, who stood with the backing of the Madem-G15 movement, won the second round of presidential elections with 53.55% of the vote, while Simões Pereira secured 46.45%.

Carlos Pinto Pereira, a lawyer representing Simões Pereira, said on Thursday that around 110,000 votes were manipulated and that only a recount can determine who actually won the elections.