Guinea-Bissau’s political system has been hampered in recent years by power struggles between the presidency and the parliamentary majority, and a military coup in late 2025 thwarted efforts to restore regular political order by holding overdue elections. Conditions for civil liberties had gradually improved as the country recovered from the aftermath of an earlier coup in 2012, though police continued to disrupt some demonstrations, and journalists faced interference with their work. Corruption remains a major problem that has been exacerbated by organized criminal activity, including drug trafficking.

• The Supreme Court of Justice ruled in February that President Umaro Sissoco Embaló’s five-year presidential term would expire in September, despite arguments from the political opposition and civil society groups that it should have expired that month. The government then announced that overdue presidential and legislative elections would be held in November. A mission to the country from the Economic Community of West African States, tasked with helping to negotiate a consensus-based election plan, departed in March after the president threatened to expel it.
• In August, a few months before the elections, the president appointed Braima Camará, a former ally of the opposition, to the position of prime minister, replacing Rui Duarte de Barros following the resignation of the government. Although the prime minister is supposed to be chosen in consultation with the parliamentary parties, the president had dissolved the parliament in late 2023 and prevented it from reconvening. Also in August, authorities suspended three major Portuguese public media outlets and ordered their journalists to leave the country without explanation; a reporter for one of the outlets had been physically attacked in July in connection with his work.
• In September, the Supreme Court of Justice rejected the electoral candidates of the African Party for the Independence of Guinea-Bissau and Cabo Verde (PAIGC), which had been the largest parliamentary party. The court claimed that the applications had been filed too late, though they were submitted before the deadline. The PAIGC, having been excluded from the ballot, ultimately endorsed independent candidate Fernando Dias da Costa for the presidency.
• Authorities in Portugal were investigating suspected embezzlement and laundering of public funds from Guinea-Bissau during the year, even as public-sector workers in the country organized multiple strikes over unpaid wages. In June, for example, health and education workers mounted a strike to protest the government’s breach of an earlier agreement to repay accumulated salary debts, some of which dated back to 2007.
• The military carried out a coup three days after the November 23 general elections, before the official results were announced, but after Dias, the opposition candidate, claimed victory over Embaló; although soldiers seized records and equipment from the National Election Commission, tally sheets that had already been shared externally supported Dias’s claim. President Embaló was allowed to leave the country, Dias took refuge in the Nigerian embassy, and the head of the PAIGC was arrested. In December, the military junta suspended the constitution and issued a transitional charter to cover a one-year transition period. The army chief of staff, General Horta Inta-A, was sworn in as transitional president, and the incumbent finance minister, Ilídio Vieira Té, was appointed as prime minister; a 65-member transitional legislature was also created. The Supreme Court of Justice remained in place as the “custodian” of the transitional charter.

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For additional background information, see the reports from the 2024 and 2025 editions of Freedom in the World.