00:00A botched and incomplete election. A questionable call according to the opposition. Guinea is now staring at an unforeseeable future.
00:09The opposition has expressed doubt about the validity of this call, citing the conduct of the deposit leader Mbalo Sisoko.
00:16The sentiment coming out from the opposition and civil society is that this was staged because Mbalo was losing his grip on power.
00:24And in order to play up vulnerabilities, particularly towards his legitimacy and his authority, a coup may have taken place.
00:32The people who have carried this out, which include the general who has status claim to power,
00:38there's Dinesh Nchama, who had been a very close associate of the president, his personal military advisor, in fact.
00:45And the fact that Mbalo had access, was able to actually communicate to the outside world that this has happened to him, that he has been removed from power.
00:53A total of four coups have taken place in Guinea-Bissau and several other attempts since it gained its independence in 1974 from Portugal.
01:03Some sources have linked the coup to other nations, but analysts have downplayed this scenario.
01:10I mean, Guinea-Bissau's long history of political coups is largely linked to the fact that it has had weak institutions since independence from the Portuguese.
01:19There's not much evidence of external influence, particularly with this coup, but even various other coups.
01:24Some people have tried to draw a Russia link, but then Mbalo and his administration have always been diplomatically ambiguous.
01:32They have played a significant role in ECOWAS.
01:34At some point, he was the chairperson.
01:36And ECOWAS, we know, despite its weakened institutional capacity, is against military coups in the region.
01:42He is fairly close to France.
01:44He's also quite close to Russia.
01:46The deposed president, Omar Ossesok Mbalo, arrived in neighboring Senegal on Friday after being released by military forces that toppled his government this week, according to Senegalese authorities.
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