September 13, (THEWILL) – Guinea Bissau’s President, Umaro Sissoco Embalo, on Thursday, said he would not run for a second term in the nation’s elections scheduled for November 2024.
Speaking at the end of a cabinet meeting on Thursday night, 51-year-old Embalo said his wife had dissuaded him from running again and did not name a successor.
President Embalo was elected in January 2020 to succeed 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 President, however, declared that neither Pereira nor two other opposition politicians, Braima Camara and Nuno Gomes Na Bian, would take over the reins of leadership.
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. There were two attempts to overthrow him during his presidency, according to Embalo, the latest in December 2023.
