For a day recently, the small West African country of Guinea-Bissau had two presidents and two prime ministers, until one of the presidents stepped down citing death threats. The National Election Commission has repeatedly confirmed that Mr Embaló won the polls with 54% of the vote, and at least one minister in his government has publicly accused their opponents of bribing a Supreme Court judge to rule in PAIGC’s favour and stall the confirmation of Mr Embaló’s win. Both sides say they have proof, but in the vacuum of that proof, residents’ social media feeds are flooded with false news reports of weapons seizures at a political party’s headquarters and politicians hiding out at foreign embassies – events that never happened. To add to the confusion, Guinea-Bissau has for many years been used as a staging post in the trafficking of cocaine from Latin America to Europe. The PAIGC’s Aristides Gomes, who still says he is the rightful prime minister, has claimed that narco-trafficking is the main factor behind the current political instability.
SOURCE: BBC