Guinea-Bissau main opposition candidate has accused deposed President Umaro Sissoco Embal\u00f3 of faking a coup to retain power.<\/p>\n
Fernando Dias was the main challenger in last week\u2019s closely contested presidential vote, which both men claim to have won.<\/p>\n
A general inaugurated as the country\u2019s leader after the military seized power on Wednesday had been a close ally of Embal\u00f3.<\/p>\n
On Thursday, General Horta Nta Na Man was named transitional president of the military government, which will oversee a one-year transition period.<\/p>\n
Dias, in a video posted online, echoed claims made by civil society groups.<\/p>\n
\u201cI am the winner of the elections. I have polling station reports confirming my victory. I won the elections, so how could I possibly orchestrate a coup? After all, who is behind this,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Embal\u00f3’s whereabouts remain unknown. On Wednesday he told French media that he had been arrested by soldiers.<\/p>\n
The opposition called on people to stage protests against the coup and demand publication of the election results.<\/p>\n
But on Thursday morning, activities appeared to be normal in the capital Bissau, with businesses and public transport gradually picking up.<\/p>\n
The opposition African Party for the Independence of Guinea and Cape Verde was barred from the vote in the elections.<\/p>\n
This prompted its leader, former Prime Minister Domingos Sim\u00f5es Pereira and runner-up in the 2019 election, to back Dias.<\/p>\n
The reported military takeover is the latest in a string of coups and attempted coups in Guinea-Bissau since it gained independence from Portugal in 1974.<\/p>\n
It is also the latest in a surge of military takeovers in West Africa, where democracy recently has been challenged by disputed elections that analysts say could embolden militaries.<\/p>\n
Guinea-Bissau main opposition candidate has accused deposed President Umaro Sissoco Embal\u00f3 of faking a coup to retain power. Fernando Dias was the main challenger in last week\u2019s closely contested presidential vote, which both men claim to have won. A general inaugurated as the country\u2019s leader after the military seized power on Wednesday had been a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":15472,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"iawp_total_views":0,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":{"format":"standard","override":[{"template":"1","parallax":"1","fullscreen":"1","layout":"right-sidebar","sidebar":"default-sidebar","second_sidebar":"default-sidebar","sticky_sidebar":"1","share_position":"top","share_float_style":"share-monocrhome","show_featured":"1","show_post_meta":"1","show_post_author_image":"1","show_post_date":"1","post_date_format":"default","post_date_format_custom":"Y\/m\/d","show_post_reading_time":"0","post_reading_time_wpm":"300","post_calculate_word_method":"str_word_count","show_zoom_button":"0","zoom_button_out_step":"2","zoom_button_in_step":"3","show_post_tag":"1","show_comment_section":"1","number_popup_post":"1","show_post_related":"1","show_inline_post_related":"1"}],"image_override":[{"single_post_thumbnail_size":"crop-500","single_post_gallery_size":"crop-500"}],"trending_post_position":"meta","trending_post_label":"Trending","sponsored_post_label":"Sponsored by","disable_ad":"0","source_name":"Reuters","subtitle":""},"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":{"view_counter_number":"0","share_counter_number":"0","like_counter_number":"0","dislike_counter_number":"0"},"footnotes":""},"categories":[2362,33,27],"tags":[309,4657,1187],"class_list":["post-18766","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","category-politics","category-west-africa","tag-guinea-bissau","tag-horta-nta-na-man","tag-umaro-sissoco-embalo"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18766","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18766"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18766\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15472"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18766"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18766"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18766"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}