Guinea-Bissau Military Forms National Transitional Council One Week After Coup

In one week of seizing power, Guinea-Bissau’s military says it has established a National Transitional Council.

The Council’s duty will be to prepare the instruments of transition and oversee transitional governing bodies and their activities. The resolution, published on Thursday, didn’t specify how council members will be selected.

The military coup came three days after a closely contested presidential election which the two main contenders both claim to have won.

The army said it would also draft a Transitional Charter to restore constitutional legality in the country. The Charter dissolves the current Judicial Council for the duration of the transition.

In a third resolution, the junta justified November’s coup, saying that it had a duty to act and change the constitutional order by force given the risk the tense political situation could degenerate in to an ethnic civil war.

On Tuesday, the country’s electoral commission said that it’s unable to finalise results of the disputed presidential vote after armed men broke into its office and stole tally sheets on the same day the military seized power.