*By Paul Ejime*
Ahead of the ECOWAS Summit in Freetown on Sunday 19 July, Guinea-Bissau’s two main opposition political coalitions – PAI-TR and API-CG – have called for a civilian-led transition government to replace the military junta currently in power in the country following former President Umaro Sissoco Embaló’s self-coup on 26th November 2025.
In a Memorandum to the Chair of the ECOWAS Authority, Sierra Leone’s President Julius Maada Bio, the group demanded “…a genuine civilian transition, as recommended by ECOWAS at the Abuja Summit, (on December 14, 2025), with a civilian President and a civilian Prime Minister (to head) an inclusive government that reflects the political spectrum of Guinean society, (and) responsible for carrying out the necessary structural reforms (to) organize free, fair, and transparent elections on a new date to be defined by consensus.”
The Chair of the ECOWAS Council of Ministers, Chairperson of the African Union, Special Representative of the AU in Guinea-Bissau, the Presidents of the European and ECOWAS Commissions, and the Resident Coordinator of the UN System in Guinea-Bissau, were also copied in the statement by the PAI-TR and API-CG, which claim to “represent the majority of the people of Guinea-Bissau.”
They said the “…NTC (National Transitional Council), created by the coup plotters within the framework of the Transitional Programme that ECOWAS categorically rejected in Abuja, is an ad-hoc body devoid of any legitimacy and chaired by the Chief of General Staff of the Armed Forces. It is essentially composed of the coup-plotting military officers themselves and political allies of former President Umaro Sissoco Embaló, without any legitimate representation from the parties and political platforms most representative of the people.”
The group accused the junta regime of approving a “new Constitution of the Republic …in secret, without any consultation or public debate;” “…called for a referendum on this new Constitution, for August 30, 2026,” and “apparently revised the Electoral Code, based on this ‘new Constitution’ that it intends to submit to the referendum.”
According to the memorandum, “…the authorities, who seized power by force and refuse to engage in dialogue to form an inclusive government… …as recommended by ECOWAS in Abuja – are the same ones who have altered the country’s constitutional framework and are preparing to impose it on the people of Guinea-Bissau.”
The opposition group reminded the ECOWAS Authority of its decisions at the Abuja Summit, “…namely, the dissemination of the election results that were already in the hands of all the election observation missions..
They noted that “…in paragraphs 38, 39, 40 and 41 of its Final Communiqué, the Conference” demanded, “…the immediate release of all detained politicians and the guarantee of their full participation in all political processes in Guinea-Bissau; the establishment of a short civilian transition, led by an inclusive government reflecting the political spectrum of Guinean society…”
The memorandum also said that the summit had “authorised” the ECOWAS Stabilization Support Mission in Guinea-Bissau (ESSMGB) “…to provide protection to the country’s political leaders and national institutions; and warned “…that, if the requirement for a short transition led by an inclusive government is not met, ECOWAS will impose specific sanctions on all individuals or groups that impede the return to constitutional order through an inclusive process.”
”To date, none of these requirements has been respected,” the opposition group said, adding that the junta regime “…has chosen to completely ignore ECOWAS…”
They said that “On July 10, the President of the National People’s Assembly and leader of the PAIGC (African Party for the Independence of Guinea and Cabo Verde), Domingos Simöes Pereira, who had been under house arrest for more than six months after being transferred from a 64-day detention in January 2026, was again imprisoned by a political decision of the military court.”
The PAI-TR and API-CG denounced the military court’s decision as “illegal,” saying that as an MP, Pereira “cannot be brought to trial and/or judged without his parliamentary immunity being lifted,” and “If he is to be judged, it must be by the Supreme Court of Justice.”
”Domingos Simôes Pereira is being accused of attempted coup d’état, which is not a crime under the jurisdiction of the Military Justice system,” the opposition group said, adding that “the Military Court does not judge civilians, except in times of war and for specific crimes (espionage) (Article 121 of the Constitution and Article 2 of the Military Code of Justice).”
Pereira and the PAIGC were barred from the 23 November 2025 elections. He mobilised his supporters to vote for Fernando Dias da Costa, who claimed victory in the poll. Da Costa’s Campaign Directorate alleged in a recent statement that “he is in Bissau without security protection” since leaving the Nigerian Embassy refuge in January this year following the Embaló coup of 26 November 2025.
The opposition parties said “the main opposition leaders (in Guinea-Bissau) continue to be persecuted, and some are denied the right to leave the national territory; the ECOWAS military contingent stationed in Guinea-Bissau offers no protection to opposition leaders, in flagrant contradiction with the Abuja decisions; and there are systematic and repeated violations of human rights, including kidnappings, beatings, and assassinations of people who oppose the regime.”
They also accused the junta regime of “prohibiting all political activity, (while) the headquarters of political parties throughout the national territory have been closed.”
The group warned, “that political parties cannot participate in the referendum or the elections of December 6, since all political activities have been prohibited since the November 2025 coup”.
“Furthermore, under these circumstances, it is unclear how it will be possible to organize the alleged constitutional referendum and then hold elections only four months before the deadline set by the coup leaders themselves,” the opposition coalitions said, noting that “the 2001 ECOWAS Supplementary Protocol on Democracy and Good Governance does not allow any law to be amended and approved less than six months before elections are held.”
“To restore constitutional normality in Guinea-Bissau, ECOWAS must intervene and compel the military authorities to comply with the decisions of the Abuja summit,” the memorandum affirmed.
It also called for the “Immediate” release of Pereira “from prison (to) allow his participation in all political activities; the immediate lift of all restrictions on the political activities of parties, their leaders and members, and allow the reopening of their headquarters.”
The statement further called on ECOWAS to “…reject the referendum …and all other laws approved by the NTC, because, in addition to this body not having the legitimacy to revise the Constitution, there is no freedom or free and democratic environment for the organization of a referendum (in Guinea-Bissau.”
It also urged ECOWAS to “Facilitate the creation of a dialogue platform among the nation’s political and social actors, and with the support and participation of other international entities, namely the Community of Portuguese-Speaking Countries (CPLP), AU, EU and the United Nations Office for West Africa and the Sahel (UNOWAS), to discuss the terms and conditions for implementing the resolutions of the ECOWAS Summits of Heads of State and Government, as well as for rigorous monitoring of the process, and possible arbitration.”
The crisis in Guinea-Bissau has divided ECOWAS down the middle. Some leaders are supporting Embaló and “regime protection.” Others are either disinterested or prefer a hard line, including barring Embaló and the military regime officials from participating in future elections.
The Freetown summit is an opportunity for ECOWAS leaders to redeem themselves and the faltering regional economic bloc, which in the last six years has seen a resurgence of military coups with four of its member states now under military dictatorships, and three of them withdrawing to form the Alliance of Sahel States, AES. This is largely blamed on bad governance, characterised by corrupt leadership, flawed elections, tenure elongation, stifling of the civic space, alteration of national constitutions and electoral laws, and the blatant violations of citizens’ human rights and the ECOWAS rules.
*Ejime is a Global Affairs Analyst and Consultant on Peace & Security and Governance Communication*