Guinea Bissau: The Times Are A Changin'

GUINEA BISSAU

The Times Are A Changin’

The tiny West African country of Guinea-Bissau has been mired in political crises for years.

In 2012, the military seized power in a coup – one of many in the former Portuguese colony’s four decades of independence.

In 2014, President Jose Mario Vaz defeated a military-backed candidate to win office. But since he assumed power, Vaz has fired six prime ministers, including his main political rival, Domingos Simoes Pereira, in 2015. Meanwhile, no president of Guinea-Bissau has finished a full term in the 24 years since the country’s first multi-party elections.

Corruption and drug trafficking are rampant in the impoverished nation. With law and order inhibited, Islamic militants linked to Al Qaeda might be earning money from cocaine trafficking as the drug passes through the country on its way from Latin America to Europe and elsewhere, Bloomberg wrote.

The dismal state of affairs has prevented the United Nations from lifting sanctions on military leaders imposed after the coup,reported Agence France-Presse.

Now things might finally be changing.

After a four-month delay stemming from concerns about hurdles to registering for the ballot, voters are slated to go to the polls to elect new lawmakers on March 10.

“We are going to choose whoever is the best for everyone, so he can govern us,” an unnamed voter told euronews. “Whoever will value us. We don’t want to go through again, what we’ve already been through.”

If the elections take place without serious problems and a presidential election is held later in the year, the UN might rescind its sanctions so the country’s politics can normalize, reportedXinhua, the Chinese newswire.

“It (Guinea-Bissau) has a very high potential in natural resources, agriculture and fisheries, and it could contribute to the economy of West Africa,” wrote PassBlue, a news website that covers the UN.

The country faces a Catch-22, however. Its political and economic institutions are threadbare, issues that in turn undermine faith in the democratic process.

Students, for example, recently staged demonstrations against teacher strikes – a protest against a protest, in other words. One of their main complaints was that political candidates were spending money that could have been used to pay educators.

“They don’t care about us,” said Carlos Badilé, a high school student, in an interview with Agence France-Presse. “All they think about is campaign. Look at all these big cars, these banners deployed all over the country. Don’t you think that the money spent could have taken care of the teachers’ demands?”

One hopes those big cars and banners help elect well-meaning, competent leaders. Time will tell.