Members of Guinea-Bissau's Electoral Commission reporting that most established records of the election results from the November 23, 2025 election were destroyed as a result of the military coup d'etat
On November 23, 2025, the West African country of Guinea-Bissau held a national election, but on November 26th, 2025, a military coup d’etat, led by Brigadier General Dinis Incanha was carried out. The military coup has disrupted any potential for civilian governance in the country for the foreseeable future.
The international capitalist/imperialist media is reporting this incident within the context of it being the ninth coup d’etat in Guinea-Bissau since the independence war was won by the African Party for the Independence of Guinea-Bissau (PAIGC) in 1974. The often repeated and easily defeated refrain by these media sources is that coup d’etats in Guinea-Bissau, and all of Africa, are automatic byproducts of African people when we make any attempt to govern our own lives. The fact these sources consistently make note of the claim that Guinea-Bissau is a hub for illegal narcotics trafficked from the Western world to Europe simply reinforces this racist and simplistic perspective around African politics.
In order to gain a proper understanding of what’s taking place in Guinea-Bissau its essential to understand that country (and Africa’s) history. Viciously colonized by Portugal for decades, Amilcar Cabral founded the PAIGC in 1956. From that day forward, the PAIGC, staged its revolutionary anti-colonial war against Portuguese occupation, staging its operations from neighboring Guinea where they received logical and practical support and assistance from the Democratic Party of Guinea and its president – Sekou Ture.
As a result of the resilience of the people of Guinea-Bissau along with this clear example of revolutionary Pan-Africanist cooperation, the PAIGC was victorious in 1974. Although Amilcar Cabral, Titina Silas, and other leaders within the PAIGC were assassinated by agents for Portugal in 1973, the PAIGC governed the country until 1980 when Luis Cabral, the brother of Amilcar, was overthrown as president in a coup d’etat.
Those historical occurrences provide some backdrop for the events of 2025. In 2023, the country had a national election where results and the fairness of that election were confirmed by international observers such as representatives from the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS). Those results showed that the PAIGC, and the Terra Ranka (PAI Terra Ranka) Coalition won an overwhelming majority of seats for the National Assembly (the national legislature in Guinea-Bissau), and Domingos Pereira, the President of the PAIGC, won the election for president by almost 100,000 votes (a significant victory in a country of only slightly more than two million people).
At the time, Umaro Embalo held the position of president. He was and is the universally selected candidate by imperialism being their neo-colonial choice to continue to make the country available for international and illegal interests while doing nothing to improve the conditions for the people of Guinea-Bissau. Consequently, Embalo invalidated the 2023 election results, refusing to permit the majority Terra Ranka Coalition Assembly seat victors to take their seats. He also refused to recognize the results of the presidential election, calling it invalid. He demanded that a re-election take place and this time, he won that second race by about 80,000 votes. Universal condemnation of voter repression and corruption during that second election in 2023 set the stage for the November 2025 election.
Fast forward to 2025 where Embalo, recognizing the national popularity of the PAIGC and Brother Pereira, outlawed the PAIGC from participating in the November 23rd, 2025 election. As a result, the PAIGC threw its support behind Ferdinand Dias who ran against Embalo. Before the results, which initially pointed to a victory by Dias, could be confirmed, the coup d’etat took place, invalidating the election, resulting in the arrest of Brother Periera, and causing Dias to flee Guinea-Bisau for neighboring Senegal.
Embalo also left Guinea-Bissau for Brazzaville, but there is substantial evidence that suggests that the military coup leaders could be in league with Embalo in a play to prevent Dias and the Terra Ranka National Assembly victors, from ever being seated. Before leaving the country, Embalo was permitted to address the people of Guinea-Bissau through national media sources which would represent the first time in known history that military coup d’etat leaders allowed a displaced politician to have such a privilege. In comparison, when the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) led the overthrew of Kwame Nkrumah’s government in Ghana in 1966, everyone even suspected of being supportive of Nkrumah was forced to leave Ghana immediately at the threat of losing their lives. Nkrumah himself was out of the country when the coup happened and although he lived for six more years, he was never able to set foot in Ghana again.
The model in Africa since the independence movements in the 50s and 60s has been to infect these anti-colonial efforts with neo-colonialism. Since the very structure of colonialism was always to establish exploitative mechanisms in Africa, Asia, and the Americas, that would serve the interests of the capitalist countries, that strategy of course relied on keeping the colonial subjects dependent upon the colonizers. As a result, the only education made available in Africa was that which promoted loyalty to the colonizing country. This reality explains why coup d’etats have been so common in Africa since the 1960s because the chief responsibility of a neo-colonialist leader is to demonstrate their ability and commitment to ensuring the country they govern is always readily available to foreign exploitation as its priority. In the case of Embalo, the alleged disposed president in Guinea-Bissau, his refusals to seat the PAIGC/Terra Ranka Assembly members (with zero proof that they did not legally and fairly win their elections), his subsequent banning of the PAIGC from the elections, the ill timing of the military coup d’etat to happen just before the results of the most recent election were most likely going to declare Dias victorious, the relatively soft treatment towards him from the military and his non-dramatic exit from the country into Brazzerville, all reek of a planned and scripted coup d’etat in which Embalo isn’t the victim of a coup, but rather the person(s) who orchestrated it.
Meanwhile, at the time of the preparation of this article, PAIGC President and President of the Guinea-Bissau National Assembly – Domingos Periera remains locked up in military custody, the PAIGC remains banned, and Dias has been forced to exit the country.
Understanding the shaky ground that international imperialism and neo-colonialism occupy in today’s world, a scripted coup d’etat in Guinea-Bissau makes sense. The popular support of the PAIGC in Guinea-Bissau is undeniable. And, the PAIGC’s history and developing Pan-African consciousness connects Guinea-Bissau’s destiny with that of all of Africa and with all African people everywhere on earth. This is the exact thing that has imperialism shaking in its boots. And, for good reason because even if many of us on the right side of history remain confused, the imperialists understand clearly that their tricks in Guinea-Bissau, Somalia, the Sahel region, the Congo, Sudan, Western Sahara, etc., will work temporarily, but the writing is on the wall for them. The people of Guinea-Bissau are in the streets, refusing to be fooled by these neo-colonial tactics. This type of rising consciousness is all over Africa and the African world today and its continued development does not bode well for the enemies of humanity.
ere to edit.
The international capitalist/imperialist media is reporting this incident within the context of it being the ninth coup d’etat in Guinea-Bissau since the independence war was won by the African Party for the Independence of Guinea-Bissau (PAIGC) in 1974. The often repeated and easily defeated refrain by these media sources is that coup d’etats in Guinea-Bissau, and all of Africa, are automatic byproducts of African people when we make any attempt to govern our own lives. The fact these sources consistently make note of the claim that Guinea-Bissau is a hub for illegal narcotics trafficked from the Western world to Europe simply reinforces this racist and simplistic perspective around African politics.
In order to gain a proper understanding of what’s taking place in Guinea-Bissau its essential to understand that country (and Africa’s) history. Viciously colonized by Portugal for decades, Amilcar Cabral founded the PAIGC in 1956. From that day forward, the PAIGC, staged its revolutionary anti-colonial war against Portuguese occupation, staging its operations from neighboring Guinea where they received logical and practical support and assistance from the Democratic Party of Guinea and its president – Sekou Ture.
As a result of the resilience of the people of Guinea-Bissau along with this clear example of revolutionary Pan-Africanist cooperation, the PAIGC was victorious in 1974. Although Amilcar Cabral, Titina Silas, and other leaders within the PAIGC were assassinated by agents for Portugal in 1973, the PAIGC governed the country until 1980 when Luis Cabral, the brother of Amilcar, was overthrown as president in a coup d’etat.
Those historical occurrences provide some backdrop for the events of 2025. In 2023, the country had a national election where results and the fairness of that election were confirmed by international observers such as representatives from the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS). Those results showed that the PAIGC, and the Terra Ranka (PAI Terra Ranka) Coalition won an overwhelming majority of seats for the National Assembly (the national legislature in Guinea-Bissau), and Domingos Pereira, the President of the PAIGC, won the election for president by almost 100,000 votes (a significant victory in a country of only slightly more than two million people).
At the time, Umaro Embalo held the position of president. He was and is the universally selected candidate by imperialism being their neo-colonial choice to continue to make the country available for international and illegal interests while doing nothing to improve the conditions for the people of Guinea-Bissau. Consequently, Embalo invalidated the 2023 election results, refusing to permit the majority Terra Ranka Coalition Assembly seat victors to take their seats. He also refused to recognize the results of the presidential election, calling it invalid. He demanded that a re-election take place and this time, he won that second race by about 80,000 votes. Universal condemnation of voter repression and corruption during that second election in 2023 set the stage for the November 2025 election.
Fast forward to 2025 where Embalo, recognizing the national popularity of the PAIGC and Brother Pereira, outlawed the PAIGC from participating in the November 23rd, 2025 election. As a result, the PAIGC threw its support behind Ferdinand Dias who ran against Embalo. Before the results, which initially pointed to a victory by Dias, could be confirmed, the coup d’etat took place, invalidating the election, resulting in the arrest of Brother Periera, and causing Dias to flee Guinea-Bisau for neighboring Senegal.
Embalo also left Guinea-Bissau for Brazzaville, but there is substantial evidence that suggests that the military coup leaders could be in league with Embalo in a play to prevent Dias and the Terra Ranka National Assembly victors, from ever being seated. Before leaving the country, Embalo was permitted to address the people of Guinea-Bissau through national media sources which would represent the first time in known history that military coup d’etat leaders allowed a displaced politician to have such a privilege. In comparison, when the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) led the overthrew of Kwame Nkrumah’s government in Ghana in 1966, everyone even suspected of being supportive of Nkrumah was forced to leave Ghana immediately at the threat of losing their lives. Nkrumah himself was out of the country when the coup happened and although he lived for six more years, he was never able to set foot in Ghana again.
The model in Africa since the independence movements in the 50s and 60s has been to infect these anti-colonial efforts with neo-colonialism. Since the very structure of colonialism was always to establish exploitative mechanisms in Africa, Asia, and the Americas, that would serve the interests of the capitalist countries, that strategy of course relied on keeping the colonial subjects dependent upon the colonizers. As a result, the only education made available in Africa was that which promoted loyalty to the colonizing country. This reality explains why coup d’etats have been so common in Africa since the 1960s because the chief responsibility of a neo-colonialist leader is to demonstrate their ability and commitment to ensuring the country they govern is always readily available to foreign exploitation as its priority. In the case of Embalo, the alleged disposed president in Guinea-Bissau, his refusals to seat the PAIGC/Terra Ranka Assembly members (with zero proof that they did not legally and fairly win their elections), his subsequent banning of the PAIGC from the elections, the ill timing of the military coup d’etat to happen just before the results of the most recent election were most likely going to declare Dias victorious, the relatively soft treatment towards him from the military and his non-dramatic exit from the country into Brazzerville, all reek of a planned and scripted coup d’etat in which Embalo isn’t the victim of a coup, but rather the person(s) who orchestrated it.
Meanwhile, at the time of the preparation of this article, PAIGC President and President of the Guinea-Bissau National Assembly – Domingos Periera remains locked up in military custody, the PAIGC remains banned, and Dias has been forced to exit the country.
Understanding the shaky ground that international imperialism and neo-colonialism occupy in today’s world, a scripted coup d’etat in Guinea-Bissau makes sense. The popular support of the PAIGC in Guinea-Bissau is undeniable. And, the PAIGC’s history and developing Pan-African consciousness connects Guinea-Bissau’s destiny with that of all of Africa and with all African people everywhere on earth. This is the exact thing that has imperialism shaking in its boots. And, for good reason because even if many of us on the right side of history remain confused, the imperialists understand clearly that their tricks in Guinea-Bissau, Somalia, the Sahel region, the Congo, Sudan, Western Sahara, etc., will work temporarily, but the writing is on the wall for them. The people of Guinea-Bissau are in the streets, refusing to be fooled by these neo-colonial tactics. This type of rising consciousness is all over Africa and the African world today and its continued development does not bode well for the enemies of humanity.
ere to edit.
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