Referendum in Guinea-Bissau: vote counting underway after a lackluster vote

Polling stations closed Sunday night in Guinea-Bissau, where vote counting began after a constitutional referendum that failed to generate enthusiasm among voters and aims to move to a strong presidential regime to replace the current semi-parliamentary system.

In the capital, Bissau, the vote counting continued into the evening.

The first provisional results could be announced from Tuesday.

In a press briefing Sunday evening, Idrissa Djalo, executive secretary of the National Elections Commission (CNE), announced a participation rate "exceeding 55%".

"The vote took place in an organized manner across the entire national territory, with satisfactory turnout in some regions, notably Bissau, Biombo, Oio, Bafata," he added.

The CNE believes that "the vote took place overall without incident that would call into question the credibility of the election".

Following Zimbabwe, Guinea, Togo, Uganda and Chad in recent years, this is the latest example of an African country seeking to amend or change its Constitution to extend the term of office, remove age limits or strengthen the prerogatives of the executive branch.

The opposition had called for a boycott of the referendum, notably the PAIGC, the historic party that led Guinea-Bissau to independence in 1974. It had denounced the organization of a referendum "in a context of restriction of public freedoms" and a tense political climate.

This election was a crucial step in this country, which has been ruled by a junta since November 26, and which is supposed to organize the return to civilian power in a presidential election scheduled for December 6.

- Low voter turnout -

The Portuguese-speaking West African country has experienced five coups and a host of attempted coups since its independence from Portugal in 1974.

The referendum, held in the middle of the rainy season, which is particularly intense in this region, did not attract crowds of voters.

They were asked to approve or reject a draft of a new Constitution, which aims primarily to replace the semi-parliamentary system with a strong presidential regime by granting the head of state the power to appoint and dismiss the Prime Minister and the government and to dissolve Parliament.

The stated objective of the transitional authorities is to stabilize the institutions before the presidential election.

"What we are seeking after this referendum is to allow whoever wins the elections to finish his term in peace," the head of the junta and president of the transition, General Horta N'Tam, told the press earlier on Sunday.

In Bissau, after a slow start due to heavy rain, voters flocked in at midday, but the pace then slowed considerably.

In the regions of Tombali and Quinara (south) and in the East, the turnout was mixed or even low, according to local journalists contacted by AFP.

The inclement weather of the rainy season makes travel difficult in some areas.

N'djamba Seide, interviewed by AFP as he left a polling station in Bissau, said he was "motivated to come and vote" to "bring about changes to our Constitution" and "change" what "always causes problems in the country".

"The successive crises that the country has experienced have had a very negative impact on my yields. If all goes well, Guinea-Bissau will start with new prospects," said Halimatou Traoré, a trader in her thirties, after voting in Bissau.

- "Dangerous for our democracy" -

Guinea-Bissau has been ruled since November 26, 2025, the day before the scheduled announcement of the provisional results of the presidential and legislative elections of November 23, 2025, by military officers who suspended the electoral process.

The National Transitional Council (NTC), the legislative body, unanimously adopted an amendment to the Constitution in January 2026.

The new text submitted to referendum proposes to abandon the old model where the Prime Minister came from the majority in Parliament, which had led to difficult cohabitations.

For Nelson Moreira, a member of the CNT, the draft of the new Constitution would make it possible to avoid conflicts between the presidency and the Prime Minister's office, which have undermined the stability of the country in the past.

But part of the political class and civil society vehemently contests the in-depth rewriting of the Constitution by an unelected transitional power.

"The presidential system that the junta wants to impose will concentrate all power in the hands of one man. This is dangerous for our democracy," Abubacar Ture, president of the Guinea-Bissau League for Human Rights, recently declared.