Guinea-Bissau presidential election, 2012
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Presidential elections were held in Guinea-Bissau on 18 March 2012 following the death of President Malam Bacai Sanhá on 9 January. A run-off was set to be held on 29 April after being postponed by a week as announced by electoral commission chief Desejado Lima Dacosta. However, after a military coup, the leading candidates were arrested and the election was cancelled. The junta's spokesman then announced plans to hold an election in two years, despite condemnation.General elections were subsequently held in April 2014.
Following the death of Malam Bacai Sanhá on 9 January 2012, a early presidential elections were scheduled to be held within 90 days, in accordance with the constitution.
No president in the history of independent Guinea-Bissau has completed his term in office: Three presidents have been ousted, one was assassinated, and another died in office.
Prime Minister Carlos Gomes Júnior resigned on 10 February to run for the presidency. A total of nine candidates contested the elections, five of whom ran in the previous elections in 2009. Their campaign literature was said to be "largely recycled." Carlos Gomes Júnior and Kumba Ialá were said to be the frontrunners in the election.
Ialá's support base was primarily based on his Balanta ethnic group. Gomes Júnior had indicated he wanted to reform the armed forces, with which he had a tense relationship.
Campaigning for the second round was due to start on 13 April and end on 27 April.
UNIOGBIS spokesman Vladimir Monteiro said: "The election was held in a very peaceful manner. In the morning, participation was relatively weak but, all day long, leaders of the electoral body encouraged the people to go and vote, and it seems that people listened and went to vote because the participation finally increased." He also added that the election commission is mandated by the constitution to release the result within 10 days of the election. However, the same night fears of military-linked violence increased with the assassination of the former head of military intelligence, Colonel Samba Diallo, just before midnight at a bar in the national capital of Bissau. The Guardian reported witnesses as saying that soldiers had fired at him and then taken his body away, possibly to a hospital.
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