About this election
Guinea-Bissau is scheduled to hold general elections — for the presidency and the National People's Assembly — on 6 December 2026, in an attempt to restore constitutional order after the military coup of November 2025. The vote was set by the junta that seized power, the High Military Command for the Restoration of Order, which annulled the results of the disputed election held days earlier and announced a one-year transition. Like every recent political milestone in this small West African nation, the 2026 timetable is fragile and conditional on the security and political situation; this page sets out the institutions, the crisis that produced the junta, and what a credible election would require.
Guinea-Bissau held general elections on 23 November 2025, but before the official results were released, soldiers of the Revolutionary Armed Forces staged a coup on 26 November, detaining President Umaro Sissoco Embaló and installing a military command that annulled the vote. Both Embaló and an opposition leader had claimed victory, and the country plunged into its latest institutional rupture. The junta, which the African Union and regional bloc ECOWAS condemned, set a one-year transition and, by decree on 22 January 2026, scheduled fresh presidential and legislative elections for 6 December 2026, while barring several figures — including coup leaders — from standing.
Guinea-Bissau has one of the most coup-prone histories in the world: since independence from Portugal in 1974, no elected president has served a full term without a coup, attempted coup or serious instability, and the military has repeatedly intervened in politics. The country has also struggled with its role as a transit hub for cocaine trafficking between Latin America and Europe, which has corrupted parts of the state. Against this backdrop, each election is as much a test of whether the army will accept the result as of the voters' choice.
Under the constitution, the President is elected by a two-round majority system for a five-year term, and the 102-member National People's Assembly is elected by proportional representation in multi-member constituencies, including seats for citizens abroad. The dominant parties have historically been the African Party for the Independence of Guinea and Cape Verde (PAIGC), the country's former liberation movement, and the Party for Social Renewal (PRS), along with shifting coalitions. Frequent disputes between presidents and parliaments, and between rival factions of the PAIGC, have driven much of the instability, with presidents repeatedly dissolving the Assembly.
The annulled November 2025 election was itself the product of crisis: Embaló had dissolved parliament in 2023 after an earlier attempted coup and had governed without a sitting legislature. His own election in 2019–2020 was disputed by the PAIGC, which initially refused to recognise the result. This pattern of contested outcomes and institutional breakdown is exactly what the 2026 election is meant to end — if it can be held freely and its result accepted by all sides, including the military.
The decisive questions are whether the junta keeps to its timetable and allows a genuinely free vote, which civilian leaders and parties are permitted to stand, and whether the armed forces and the losing candidates accept the outcome. Regional and international actors — ECOWAS, the African Union, the United Nations and Portugal and other partners — will weigh heavily on the credibility of the process. Given the history of postponements and reversals, the December date should be treated as provisional until confirmed.
Guinea-Bissau's politics has ethnic and regional dimensions, with the PAIGC and PRS drawing on different communities and regions across the mainland and the Bijagós islands, and the capital, Bissau, concentrating much of the population and the contest. ElectioMap will map results across the country's regions as official figures are released, if the election proceeds.
If and when voting takes place, this page will publish the live presidential and legislative results, with a regional map, as figures are released by the National Elections Commission (CNE). Until then it serves as a reference on the transition and the planned electoral calendar.
Presidential and legislative elections are scheduled for 6 December 2026, set by the military junta that took power in the November 2025 coup. The date is provisional and conditional on the security and political situation.
General elections were held on 23 November 2025, but before results were released, soldiers staged a coup on 26 November, detained President Umaro Sissoco Embaló, annulled the vote and installed a one-year military transition that later set the December 2026 date.
The President is elected by a two-round majority system for a five-year term, and the 102-member National People's Assembly by proportional representation. The dominant parties have historically been the PAIGC and the PRS.
Since independence in 1974 no elected president has completed a full term without a coup or serious crisis, and the army has repeatedly intervened. The country's role as a drug-trafficking transit hub has also corrupted parts of the state.
That depends on whether the junta keeps to its timetable, which leaders are allowed to stand, and whether the military and losing candidates accept the result. ECOWAS, the African Union and the UN will weigh in heavily. Dates should be treated as provisional.
Compiled and reviewed by Bartłomiej Paruzel, Election Data Analyst, from official results. See our data methodology.