Soldiers took control of the main road leading to Guinea-Bissau’s presidential palace Wednesday after heavy gunshots rang out, as the poverty-stricken west African country awaits results of a vote claimed by both major presidential candidates.The soldiers, drawn from the presidential guard and an elite gendarmerie unit, controlled the deserted area as calm returned and shooting ceased for the time being, AFP journalists on the scene observed.Hundreds of people on foot and in vehicles had fled seeking shelter as the shots rang out.The whereabouts of incumbent president Umaro Sissoco Embalo, who was favoured to win re-election, was not immediately known midday Wednesday.Both Embalo and opposition candidate Fernando Dias have already declared victory in the race, which until Wednesday had passed off peacefully.Official provisional vote results are expected Thursday in the tumultuous west African country, which has experienced four coups since independence, as well as multiple attempted coups.A passerby fleeing from the chaotic scene told AFP that “we’re used to it in Bissau”.Guinea-Bissau is among the world’s poorest countries and is also a hub for drug trafficking between Latin America and Europe, a trade facilitated by the country’s long history of political instability.- Victory claims -Both candidates had already declared victory with little proof to support their claims.”There won’t be a second round,” Embalo’s campaign spokesperson Oscar Barbosa told AFP on Tuesday, adding that the president “will have a second mandate”.Dias also declared victory, saying in a video posted to social media: “This election has been won, it has been won in the first round.”Guinea-Bissau’s last presidential vote in 2019 was marked by a four-month post-election crisis as both main candidates claimed victory.The election had pitted Embalo against Domingos Simoes Pereira, the candidate from the country’s main opposition party PAIGC, which secured Guinea-Bissau’s independence from Portugal in 1974.The country’s 2025 election notably excluded PAIGC and Pereira, who were struck from the final list of candidates and parties by the Supreme Court, which said they had filed their official applications too late.In 2023, Embalo dissolved the legislature — which was dominated by the opposition — and has since ruled by decree.The opposition says PAIGC’s exclusion from the presidential and parliamentary elections amounts to “manipulation” and maintains that Embalo’s term expired on February 27, five years to the day after his inauguration.More than 6,780 security forces, including from the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) Stabilisation Force, were deployed for the vote and the post-election period.
