Гвинея-Бисау Африкалық Тәуелсіздік Партиясы

Political party in Guinea Bissau

The African Party for the Independence of Guinea and Cape Verde (Partido Africano para a Independência da Guiné e Cabo Verde, PAIGC) is a political party in Guinea Bissau. Originally formed to peacefully campaign for independence from Portugal, the party turned to armed conflict in the 1960s and was one of the belligerents in the Guinea Bissau War of Independence. Towards the end of the war, the party established a socialist one party state, which remained intact until multi party democracy was introduced in the early 1990s. Although the party won the first multi party elections in 1994, it was removed from power in the 1999–2000 elections. However, it returned to office after winning parliamentary elections in 2004 and presidential elections in 2005, since which it has remained the largest party in the National People's Assembly. The PAIGC also governed Cape Verde, from its independence in 1975 to 1980. After the 1980 coup d'état in Guinea Bissau, the Cape Verdean branch of the PAIGC was converted into a separate party, the African Party for the Independence of Cape Verde.

The party was established in Bissau on 19 September 1956 as the African Party of Independence (Partido Africano da Independência), and was based on the Movement for the National Independence of Portuguese Guinea (Movimento para Independência Nacional da Guiné Portuguesa) founded in 1954 by Henri Labéry and Amílcar Cabral. The party had six founding members; Cabral, his brother Luís, Aristides Pereira, Fernando Fortes, Júlio Almeida and Elisée Turpin. In the context of the ongoing Cold War, PAIGC guerrillas also received Kalashnikovs from the USSR and recoilless rifles from the People's Republic of China, with all three countries helping train guerilla troops. SFR Yugoslavia sent a small cache of weapons to PAIGC in 1966. The first party congress took place at liberated Cassaca in February 1964, in which both the political and military arms of the PAIGC were assessed and reorganized, with a regular army (Revolutionary Armed Forces of the People, FARP) to supplement the guerilla forces (The People's Guerrillas). Como Island was the site of a major battle between PAIGC and Portuguese forces, in which the PAIGC took control of the island and resisted fierce counterattacks by the Portuguese, including airstrikes by FAP (Portuguese: Força Aérea Portuguesa; Portuguese Air Force) F 86 Sabres. Following the loss of Como Island, the Portuguese army, navy and the air force (FAP) began the Operation Tridente, a combined arms operation to retake the island. The PAIGC fought fiercely, and the Portuguese took heavy casualties and gained ground slowly. Finally, after 71 days of fighting and 851 FAP combat sorties, the island was taken back by the Portuguese. However, less than two months later, the PAIGC would retake the island, as the Portuguese operation to capture it had depleted much of their invasion force, leaving the island vulnerable. However, Como Island ceased to be of strategic importance to Portugal following establishment of new PAIGC positions in the south, especially on the Cantanhez and Quitafine Peninsulas. Large numbers of Portuguese troops on these peninsulas were encircled and besieged by guerrillas. Throughout the war, the Portuguese handled themselves poorly. It took them a long time to finally take the PAIGC seriously, diverting aircraft and troops based in Guinea to the conflicts in Mozambique and Angola, and by the time that the Portuguese government began to realise that the PAIGC was a significant threat to their continued rule over Guinea, it was too late. Very little was done to curtail the guerrilla operations; the Portuguese didn't try to sever the link between the populace and the PAIGC until very late in the war, and as a result, it became very dangerous for Portuguese troops to operate far from their fortresses. By 1967, the PAIGC had carried out 147 attacks on Portuguese barracks and army encampments, and effectively controlled two thirds of Portuguese Guinea. The following year, Portugal began a new campaign against the guerrillas with the arrival of the new governor of the colony, António de Spínola. Spínola began a massive construction campaign, building schools, hospitals, new housing and improving telecommunications and the road system, in an attempt to gain public favour in Guinea. PAIGC was the first African party to establish a comprehensive cooperative program with Sweden. However, in 1970, the FAP began to use similar weapons to those the US was using in the Vietnam War: napalm and defoliants, the former to destroy guerrillas when they could find them, the latter to decrease the number of ambushes that occurred when they could not. Spínola's tenure as governor marked a turning point in the war: Portugal began to win battles, and in the Operation Green Sea, a Portuguese raid on Conakry, in the neighbouring Republic of Guinea, 400 amphibious troops attacked the city and freed 26 Portuguese prisoners of war kept there by the PAIGC. The USSR and Cuba began to send more weapons to Portuguese Guinea via Nigeria, notably several Ilyushin Il 14 aircraft to use as bombers. Between August and November 1972 the party held elections to regional councils, whose members then elected a National Assembly. Whilst previous elections held by the Portuguese authorities saw suffrage limited to a few thousand people meeting tax and literacy requirements, these were arguably the first elections held in the territory under universal suffrage. Voters were presented with a list of PAIGC candidates, and had the choice to vote for or against. Around 78,000 people took part in the election, with 97% voting for the lists. On 20 January 1973 Amílcar Cabral, was assassinated by naval commander Inocêncio Kani as part of a plan within the PAIGC to overthrow the leadership. However, despite Cabral's death, the plot failed to topple the leadership, and 94 people were subsequently found guilty of involvement, complicity or suspected complicity. Kani and at least ten others were executed in March. Later in the year independence was unilaterally declared on 24 September 1973 and was recognized by a 93–7 UN General Assembly vote in November, unprecedented as it denounced the Portuguese colonial rule as aggression and occupation. The UN recognition was prior to Portuguese recognition. The conflict had seen 1,875 Portuguese soldiers (out of 35,000 stationed in Portuguese Guinea) and some 6,000 (out of 10,000) PAIGC troops killed by the end of the eleven year war.

After achieving independence, the PAIGC was instituted as the sole legal political party of Guinea Bissau and Cape Verde, with Luís Cabral becoming President of Guinea Bissau. A second set of one party elections were held in 1976 and 1977. Although the PAIGC strove for a union between Guinea Bissau and Cape Verde, the union finally broke down following a military coup led by João Bernardo Vieira against the Cape Verdean Cabral in November 1980. The Cape Verdean branch of PAIGC was subsequently converted into a separate party, the African Party for the Independence of Cape Verde (PAICV). Under Vieira, the party continued to govern the country in the 1980s and 1990s. One party elections were held in 1984 and 1989, and Vieira was re elected as PAIGC Secretary General at the party's fourth congress in November 1986. Following the introduction of multi party politics in May 1991, the first multi party elections were held in 1994. The general elections also saw the introduction of the direct election of the president. Vieira beat Kumba Ialá of the Party for Social Renewal (PRS) in the run off, while the PAIGC won 62 out of 100 seats in the National People's Assembly with 46% of the vote. Vieira was re elected for another four year term as President of PAIGC in mid May 1998 at the party's sixth congress, with 438 votes in favor, eight opposed, and four abstaining; the post of Secretary General was abolished at this congress. A few days later, former Prime Minister Manuel Saturnino da Costa was named acting President of the PAIGC on 12 May 1999. Vieira was expelled from PAIGC at a party congress in September 1999 for "treasonable offences, support and incitement to warfare, and practices incompatible with the statutes of the party". Francisco Benante, the leader of reformists within the party and the only civilian in the transitional military junta, was elected as the President of PAIGC at the end of the congress on 9 September 1999. Benante's candidacy was supported by the junta, and he received 174 votes against 133 votes for the only opposing candidate. In May 2004 it formed a government with party leader, Carlos Gomes Júnior becoming Prime Minister. In the 2005 presidential election, PAIGC candidate Malam Bacai Sanhá was defeated in the second round by Vieira, who had returned from exile and ran as an independent. A few weeks after taking office, Vieira dismissed Carlos Gomes Júnior as Prime Minister and appointed Aristides Gomes, who had formerly been a high ranking member of PAIGC but had left the party to support Vieira. In March 2007, the PAIGC formed a three party alliance with the PRS and the United Social Democratic Party as the three parties sought to form a new government. This led to a successful no confidence vote against Aristides Gomes and his resignation late in the month; on 9 April Martinho Ndafa Kabi, the choice of the three parties, was appointed Prime Minister by Vieira, and on 17 April a new government was named, composed of ministers from the three parties. PAIGC withdrew its backing for Kabi on 29 February 2008, stating that this was done "to avoid acts of indiscipline threatening cohesion and unity in the party". The PAIGC's seventh Ordinary Congress was held in Gabú in June 2008. Malam Bacai Sanhá, the party's presidential candidate in 2000 and 2005, challenged Gomes for the party leadership, but Gomes was re elected for a five year term as President of PAIGC by a vote of 578–355. Kabi, Cipriano Cassama (considered a dissident within the party and associated with Aristides Gomes), and Baciro Dja also contested the leadership election, but attracted comparatively little support. Vieira then dismissed Kabi and appointed Carlos Correia as Prime Minister on 5 August. Parliamentary elections were subsequently held in November 2008, with the PAIGC winning two thirds of the seats. In presidential elections the following year, Sanhá defeated Kumba Ialá in the run off. After Sanhá's death in January 2012, early presidential elections were held. Carlos Gomes Júnior was nominated as the PAIGC candidate, and advanced to the runoff alongside Iála, but a military coup in April prevented it taking place. General elections were eventually held in 2014, and saw PAIGC candidate José Mário Vaz elected president, whilst the party also retained its majority in the National People's Assembly, winning 57 of the 102 seats. The party contested the 2023 legislative election as part of a broad coalition, the Inclusive Alliance Platform – Terra Ranka, that included UM, PCD, PSD and MDG and won a majority of the seats.

ElectionParty candidateVotes%Votes%ResultFirst roundSecond round1994João Bernardo Vieira142,57746.20%161,08352.02%Elected 1999–2000Malam Bacai Sanhá86,72423.37%97,67028.0%Lost 2005158,27635.45%196,75947.65%Lost 2009133,78637.54%224,25963.31%Elected 2012Carlos Gomes Júnior154,79748.97%–Cancelled 2014José Mário Vaz257,57240.89%364,39461.92%Elected 2019Domingos Simões Pereira222,87040.13%254,46846.45%Lost

ElectionVotes%Seats+/–PositionGovernment1976–77136,02280.04%New1st1984 0 1st1989214,20195.80% 0 1st1994134,98246.39% 88 1st1999 38 3rd2004145,31633.88% 21 1st2008227,35049.52% 22 1st2014281,40847.98% 10 1st2019212,14835.22% 10 1st 2023Part of Inclusive Alliance Platform 1st

The PAIGC received support from the governments of China, Cuba, Soviet Union, Senegal, Guinea, Libya, Algeria, Poland, Czechoslovakia, Ghana.