Legislative elections were held in Guinea Bissau on 10 March in a “peaceful and orderly manner”.
Polling stations generally opened on time (7 am) and early morning turnout was the most significant. Throughout the day, no major security incident was reported. Security officers were present in many polling stations except few, in the regions of Biombo and Bafatá where there was a shortage of security personnel. The Political Party Agents were present in most polling locations in Bissau but had a more limited presence in the regions. Both international observers and national monitors were present in most polling stations across the country. The reported turnout was estimated at 84.7%.
The issue of voters not finding their names on the voter’s lists, as predicted, featured in reports throughout the day and the National Electoral Commission (CNE) reported a global figure of about 2%. However, there was no report of this causing any major incident. Another issue was the misplacement of voters register in incorrect polling stations, which caused some delays in voting in some electoral districts but was properly addressed by regional elections commissions.
On 13 March, the CNE announced the provisional results of the parliamentary elections which indicated a victory for the ruling African Party for the Independence of Guinea and Cape Verde (PAIGC), who garnered 47 seats. The Movement for Democratic Change (MADEM-G15), formed only 8 months ago, won 27 seats, ahead of the Party for Social Renewal, who won only 21 seats. APU-PDGB won five seats while the Union for Change (UM) and the New Democracy Party (PND) won one seat each.
These provisional results were later confirmed as final by the CNE on 15 March 2019, following the expiration of the 48-hour period of complaints. Following the announcement of the results and their publication in the official “Boletim da Republica, political parties and the President of the Republic issued statements accepting the results.
The “Support to Elections Cycle in Guinea-Bissau 2018-2019” project has provided technical, material and financial support throughout the entire electoral process including technical assistance for the design of voters’ registration modality and needs, including the definition of technical specifications of voters’ registration (VR) equipment, procurement strategy and chronogram for VR. The project also provided support with the planning, provision of logistics and electoral operations technical assistance and supply of voting materials.
Further support was provided in the development and distribution of sensitive materials to all nine regional election commission offices in Guinea-Bissau, the preparation of polling station kits, the civic education campaign. Moreover, the project supported the counting and aggregation of results and, in some regions, the Regional Electoral Advisers assisted the CRE Presidents during the data entry process for constituency results and participated in the collection of data on voting by gender in each region, to assess women’s participation in this election.
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The “Support to Elections Cycle in Guinea-Bissau 2018-2019” project aims to address the Guinea-Bissau capacity to hold legitimate, transparent and credible elections in accordance with domestic legislation and international standards.
The project provides technical assistance to the Elections Management Bodies (CNE – National Election Commission – and GTAPE – Bureau of Technical Support to the Electoral Process) on areas of voters’ registration, elections logistics, electoral operations, civic education, information technologies. It also provides financial assistance to these operations and for the purchase of polling station kit’ consumables.