>>18037Domingos Simões Pereira arrested
On Sunday the vote passed off calmly, but without the main opposition leader, Domingos Simões Pereira, who had been barred from standing. His party – the powerful African Party for the Independence of Guinea and Cape Verde (PAIGC) – had nonetheless thrown its weight behind Fernando Dias.
Reached by Jeune Afrique on Wednesday, Domingos Simões Pereira said he was “in a meeting with African Union observers, including [former Nigerian president] Goodluck Jonathan, when someone came to tell us there was gunfire in the city centre”.
He added that, from what he was later told, soldiers tried to force their way into the electoral commission’s offices “to force its chairman to read out results naming Umaro Sissoco Embaló as the winner”, even though, he insists, “Fernando Dias, the candidate we back, won outright in the first round”.
Since then, according to a source close to the two opposition figures, Domingos Simões Pereira and Fernando Dias have been arrested by armed men and taken to the air base.