Guinea-Bissau: ‘Negotiate anything except the prime minister’ – President Embaló

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Guinea-Bissau: ‘Negotiate anything except the prime minister’ – President Embaló

10:28 CAT | 08 Oct 2020

Photo: Général Umaro El Mokhtar Sissoco Embalo

Guinea-Bissau’s President, Umaro Sissoco Embaló, said on Wednesday that he could negotiate anything but the “prime minister’s head” and that a possible government reshuffle should be proposed by the government.

“Speculation is normal. Since I received a delegation from the PAIGC (African Party for the Independence of Guinea and Cabo Verde) there has been much speculation. We can negotiate everything but the head of Nuno Nabiam, as Prime Minister,” said Umaro Sissoco Embaló.

The Guinean president was speaking to journalists at the Osvaldo Vieira international airport, in Bissau, moments before he left for Lisbon, where e is to begin a three-day state visit to Portugal on Thursday.

“We have worked very well and under no circumstances will the figure of the prime minister be negotiated,” he said, stressing that democracy is the expression of the will of the majority and that the ruling coalition has a majority in parliament.

Asked if there was a possibility of a reshuffle to join the PAIGC, Umaro Sissoco Embaló said that “it is the prime minister who proposes reshuffles.

As to whether there will be any meetings in Lisbon with the leader of the PAIGC, Domingos Simões Pereira, who has been in Portugal since March, the head of state replied: “If he asks for one”.

In his statements to journalists, Embaló stressed that there are no “special and different citizens” and that he is obliged to give protection to all citizens, namely the president of the PAIGC, Braima Camará (leader of the Movement for Democratic Alternation, the second political force in parliament) and Nuno Nabiam.

“Guinea-Bissau is not Texas,” he said.

Asked about the kidnapping of two activists on Monday in Bissau, the Guinean President considered this to be an isolated case.

“I spoke with the Attorney General and the director of the Judiciary Police and they will make enquiries. It is regrettable, they are isolated cases. I am deeply sorry”, he said.

On the closure of Guinea-Conakry’s borders with Senegal, Sierra Leone and Guinea-Bissau due to the presidential elections, Umaro Sissoco Embaló replied that he had not closed borders with Guinea-Conakry, because for Guinea-Bissau “there are no threats.

“We are sorry and my problems with Alpha Condé (President of Guinea-Conakry) are junior, taking into account the superior interests of Guinea-Bissau and Guinea-Conakry,” he said.

During his stay in Portugal, Umaro Sissoco Embaló will meet with the President of Portugal, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, and visit the parliament and the headquarters of the Community of Portuguese Speaking Countries (CPLP).

The Head of State of Guinea-Bissau will also meet with the Guinean community in Portugal.

Umaro Sissoco Embaló travelled to Portugal on a Nigerian air force plane.

Source: Lusa