Guinea-Bissau, Africa’s most famous narco-state, goes to the polls

But drug-money still seems deeply enmeshed in politics

Near the port of Bissau, the capital of Guinea-Bissau, one of Africa’s smallest states, is a neglected monument to past rebellion. A giant fist of black steel commemorates striking dockers gunned down by Portuguese soldiers in 1959. The strike—and subsequent massacre—helped start a war for independence led by the African Party for the Independence of Guinea and Cape Verde (paigc), a Soviet-sponsored guerrilla movement. It took power in 1974 when Portugal’s dictatorship fell.

For much of the nearly 50 years since, the main problem in Guinea-Bissau has been the paigc. Presidential elections are due on November 24th. On October 29th the president, José Mário Vaz, sacked his government and appointed a new prime minister, though the dismissed one, Aristides Gomes, refused to leave office. If he does, it will bring to eight the number of prime ministers since Mr Vaz won the presidential election in 2014. Despite huge amounts of support, including a sizeable un mission, Guinea-Bissau, a country of 1.8m people dependent mostly on the export of cashew nuts for foreign exchange, cannot seem to produce even a vaguely capable government. It is a lesson in the difficulty of changing deep-rooted systems of corrupt politics in weak states.

Source: The Economist