Virtudes evocadas, promessas não cumpridas: eleições pluripartidárias na Guine-Bissau (1994-2019).

Abstract

The dissertation focuses on the elections held from 1994 onwards, when the country adopted a multi-party system, and covers the period up to 2019, when the most recent presidential election took place. It poses the central question of how the Guinean political system can be assessed from the adoption of multi-party elections in 1994 through to 2019, using a minimalist framework of democracy as the analytical parameter. It addresses the dialectic of promises and failures that characterize elections in Guinea-Bissau, with the main objective of analyzing how the Guinean political system has evolved over 25 years of multi-party elections (1994–2019), using minimalist democracy as the evaluative reference. The study is contextualized within the broader wave of democratization that swept across Sub-Saharan Africa from the late 1980s to the early 1990s, which enabled the replacement of one-party regimes with theoretically democratic systems. In the Guinean case, the 1990s marked the beginning of the multi-party electoral process and the end of the one-party rule of the African Party for the Independence of Guinea and Cape Verde (PAIGC), which led the country to independence from Portuguese colonial rule in 1973. The aim was to overcome the political problems of the time and to foster more effective political governance in the years that followed — a goal that, to date, has not been fully achieved. With the advent of democracy, political parties began to play a prominent role in governance, becoming indispensable actors in the process. The dissertation presents an analytical overview of the Guinean political and party landscape in light of the institutional breakdowns and governmental crises that followed the implementation of multi-party elections. In the first phase, the study explores the historical and political context of the country, providing the foundation for later explanation and understanding of the factors underlying poor governance. In the second phase, the research focuses on political parties and institutions, specifically regarding elections and post-electoral crises, in order to analyze how these various governance crises unfold. In the third phase, a broader approach is taken, with references to political parties in a more comprehensive sense, different governmental regimes and their administrative policies, as well as the ways in which their governance has generated various crises in Guinea-Bissau. Finally, in the fourth phase, a general analysis is conducted of the topics addressed throughout the chapters, highlighting, despite all challenges, the continuing relevance of elections. Two research approaches were employed: first, a bibliographic study that gathered perspectives from various theorists on the issue; second, the analysis of data and documents through fieldwork, particularly electoral results and reports of institutional crises.