GUINEA-BISSAU       Institutional Situation

  This section has been updated by Mr Boubacar Issa Abdourhamane,
a doctorate student at the CEAN, IEP – Montesquieu University of Bordeaux

Democratic Process

A former Portuguese colony, Guinea-Bissau gained its independence in 1974, after a war of liberation led by the African Party for the Independence of Guinea-Bissau and Cape Verde (PAIGC) with the aim of uniting the two countries. In the wake of the military coup d’état of November 1980, Joao Bernardo Vieira (known as Nino), another hero of the resistance, overthrew the regime led by Luis Cabral. The latter is none other than the half-brother of Amilcar, the founder and leader of the PAIGC until his assassination, and the originator of the project of unification.
The coup d’état failed to gain approval in cape Verde, thus leading to a split in this binational party and resulting in the abandonment of the project for the unification of the two countries. In 1984, Bernardo Vieira introduced a new Constitution giving himself total power. The military regime kept the People’s National Assembly (ANP) but granted it very limited power to keep check on the power of the executive. At the same time, a worsening economic situation and diverging ideas within the single party brought about increasingly frequent political crises.
Thus it was that the PAIGC 1988 congress created an “Extended Think-Tank” to prepare the way for reform of the structures of the PAIGC and in the relationship between the party and the State. In January and February 1991, the Second Extraordinary Congress of the PAIGC was held on the theme of “renewal, national unity and the consolidation of democracy”. In May the Constitution was revised with the abolition of Article 4 on the supremacy of the single party. It put an end to the exclusive role of the PAIGC as the guiding force of society and of the State and made official the separation between the armed forces, the central union organisation, the Union of the Workers of Guinea-Bissau, and the single party. Finally, the parent act on the creation of political parties was approved.
In August of the same year, a League of Human Rights was created. The People’s National Assembly (ANP) passed laws on the press, the status of journalists, access to communication media for political parties, the right to join unions and the right to strike. In November, the first independent Trade Union was created, the National Union of Transport and Communication Workers (SNTTC). A few months later the National Union of Teachers appeared (SYNAPROF).
In 1993, the different parties came to an agreement on the creation of a national electoral commission with a view to the holding of general elections. The first pluralist presidential elections were organised on 7 August 1994. President Vieira won in the second round of a transparent ballot, with 52% of the votes against 48% for his main rival Kumba Yala. General elections in which 8 parties took part were held on 3 July and 7 August 1994 to elect the 100 members of the National Assembly. They were won by the PAIGC with 62 seats. Its main adversary, the Resistencia da Guinée-Bissau-Movimento Ba-Fata (RGB-MB) won 19 seats, the rest being shared out between other parties.
This democratic process which got off to such a good start in Guinea-Bissau has been disturbed since the beginning of 1998, when a large part of the army rebelled. It all began with a scandal surrounding the supply of arms by the army of Guinea-Bissau to the rebels in Casamance. An enquiry was entrusted to the security services of the State. On the pretext of the requirements of the enquiry, President Vieira suspended the Head of the Staff of the Army, General Ansumane Mané, another hero of the war of liberation, from his post. A parliamentary commission of enquiry was also set up. Its report incriminated people close to the Head of State but, contrary to all expectations, the President accused General Mané of being the instigator of the arms supplies and dismissed him on 5 June 1998. General Mané protested his innocence and was supported by the majority of the army. On 7 June a civil war began involving 2,000 soldiers from Senegal and Guinea (Guinea Conakry).
Peace agreements were signed under the aegis of the CDEAO in Abuja in November 1998 and in Lomé in February 1999. Within the framework of these agreements, the Senegalese and Guinean soldiers withdrew and were replaced by a West African force of 600 men. An interim government under a Prime Minister close to the rebels, Francisco Fadul, was set up with the task of organising elections in November 1999. In April 1999, the works of the parliamentary commission of enquiry were made public with damning evidence against people close to the Head of State. In parliament, a majority including members of his own party demanded his resignation and a trial. It was against this backdrop that clashes resumed on 5 May 1999. A portion of the last supporters of President Vieira abandoned him and he was overthrown on 7 May.
After overthrowing the regime, the mutineers made the choice of a constitutional solution rather than leaving a political vacuum. The President of the National Assembly, Malam Bacaï Sanha, was designated interim Head of State in compliance with the terms of the Constitution, and the transition government set up by the peace agreements was kept in power. In the framework of the plan to return to democracy, presidential and general elections were organised in November 1999. In the presidential elections, two rounds were needed to choose between the candidates: Kumba Yala of the Party of Social Renovation had a strong lead over his rivals with 38.81% against 23.37% for interim President Mallam Bacaï Sanha in the first round. In the second round held on 16 January 2000, Kumba Yala was elected with 72% of the votes (251,193) against 28% for Bacaï Sanha of the PAIGC. The newly elected President tried to get the institutions of the country back into working order after the months of paralysis caused by the conflicts. But in November 2000, the country was once again faced with mutiny by part of the army led by Ansumane Mané, the ex-leader of the military junta who had supported the adversary of the President in the second round of the presidential election. After proclaiming himself Supreme Head of the armed forces and having appointed a general staff, General Mané was killed by loyalist forces on 30 November 2000, thus putting an end to the attempt to challenge the authorities established by the elections of November 1999. Tensions remained great between the authorities and the PAIGC, the main opposition party accused of complicity with the mutineers. The new authorities must now face the challenges of power, for it is the first time that the PAIGC has been in the opposition. To be able to govern the country, the Party of Social Renovation of President Kumba Yala has signed an alliance with the second most important political formation in the country, the Bafata Movement, thus ensuring a majority in parliament.

Political Institutions

The Constitution of 1984, revised to take account of the new pluralist system, created a bi-cephalous executive. The President of the Republic is elected by direct suffrage for a term of five years which may be renewed, although it is forbidden to stand for three consecutive terms of office. He has the right to dissolve the National Assembly in case of serious political crisis. He appoints the Prime Minister, taking into account the representation of the National Assembly. The Prime Minister is the Chief of the Government. Since the signature of the agreements of Abuja and Lomé, the transition Prime Minister, close to the rebels, has received wider-ranging powers for this period of transition.
The National Assembly is composed of 100 members elected directly for a term of office of 5 years. The government answers to the National Assembly, which must approve its programme. The Speaker of the Assembly becomes the interim Chief of State in the event of that post falling vacant. In the last general elections organised in November 1999, the party of the President won 38 seats, followed by 28 for the Resistance of Guinea Bissau (RGB/Bafata Movement), 24 for the PAIGC (which had had 62 seats in the former assembly), 4 for the Democratic Alliance, 3 seats each fro the Union for Change (UM) and the Social Democratic Party and, finally, 1 seat for the Social Democratic Front (FDS) and 1 for the UNDP.

Judicial System

The independence of the judicial system is written into the fundamental principles of the Constitution. The tribunals are organised as follows:
The Supreme Tribunal of Justice, the Regional People’s Tribunals, and then the local People’s Tribunals.
The Supreme Court of Justice is the highest legal authority (Article 120). It works as an appeal court and is composed of a President, six counsellors and 3 people’s assessors, divided into specialised departments.

Decentralisation and Devolution

Upon liberation of the country, the Marxist-leaning PAIGC did not abolish the Portuguese colonial model of administration, which stipulated that administration should be indirect but in fact had strong direct, centralising tendencies. The authorities replaced the traditional local powers by structures of the single party. The intention of decentralising proclaimed in the Constitution (Articles 105-118) remains to be put into practice.

Political Parties

Since the authorisation of pluralism, a number of parties have emerged on the political scene. There are currently fifteen political formations, including:
-    Frente Democratica (FD)
-    Frente Democratica Social (FDS)
-    Partido da Convergencia Democratica (PCD)
-    Resistencia da Guinée-Bissau-Movimento Ba-Fata (RGB-MB)
-    Movimento para a Unidade e a Democracia (MUDE)
-    Partido Unido Social Democratico (PUSD)
-    Frente de Libertacao para Independencia Nacional da Guinée (FLING)
-    Frente Democratico para a Reconstrucao e Desenvolvimento da Guine-Bissau (FDRGB)
-    Partido para Reconstrucao e Desenvolvimento

Trades Unions

As is usual in all the single-party regimes, the union movement of Guinea-Bissau was kept under the control of the PAIGC until the separation between the Party and the State in 1991, via the National Union of the Workers of Guinea-Bissau. With the opening up of the regime, the first independent union was created in November. It was the National Union of the Transport and Communications Workers (SNTTC). A few months later the National Union of Teachers appeared (SYNAPROF). Among the most active unions, we could also mention the Association of the Magistrates of Guinea-Bissau (AMAGUI) and the Association of Journalists of Guinea-Bissau (AJGB). Union pluralism is recognised by the Constitution and there are many other sector-based unions.

Human Rights

In February 1993, the National Assembly approved a whole series of constitutional amendments aimed at seeking to guarantee fundamental human rights, such as the abolition of the death penalty. Since the beginning of the democratic process, Amnesty International has cited Guinea-Bissau, especially in its 1994 and 1995 annual reports, for arrests of civilians and members of the military suspected of having taken part in an attempted coup d’état in 1993. The country did not get mentioned, however, in the 1996 report.
However, since the beginning of civil war in June 1998 (ending in May 1999 with the overthrow of President Vieira), there has been an increase in violations of human rights. Thousands of civilians have been forced into exile and many soldiers have been executed by their adversaries. However, it should be noted that the mutineers did not seek to break with the Constitution, despite military victory. As well as this, those soldiers loyal to President Vieira and the personalities of his regime who were arrested were either released a few days later or handed over to the West-African peacekeeping forces. The Guinean League of Human Rights was created in August 1991.

Media

The press of Guinea-Bissau, including the airwaves, was liberalised by the Law of 3 October 1993. The written press includes the government paper No Pintcha, open to the opposition, and independent publications such as L’Expresso Bissau, Corréo da Guinée-Bissau, Banoméro. Others are directly linked with the political parties: Bagueira for the PCD and Ganga Real for the RGB-MB, both of which are often highly critical of those in power. In terms of radio, the national station (RDN) faces competition from three private radio stations – Radio Pindjitiguiti, Radio Mavegro and Radio Bombolom, the latter of which fell into the hand of the mutineers and provided them with a platform throughout the conflict.
Several international radio stations also compete with each other in Bissau. We could mention the competition between Radio France Internationale (RFI) and the Portuguese radio RTPI in this Portuguese-speaking country where French is becoming increasingly important. Likewise, the national television receives competition from outside channels. Again, there is the same French-Portuguese competition with Canal France International (CFI) and its Portuguese counterpart (RTP). The press is relatively free and there is a National Council of Social Communication.