A group of army officers said they had seized power in coup-prone Guinea-Bissau on Wednesday, on the eve of the expected announcement of results from a hotly contested presidential election.

In a statement read on state television, the army officers said they had deposed President Umaro Sissoco Embalo, suspended the electoral process, shut borders and would enforce a curfew.

They said they had formed “The High Military Command for the Restoration of Order” and would be in charge of the West African nation until further notice.

Gunfire in capital before announcement

Shortly before the announcement, gunfire rang out near the electoral commission headquarters, presidential palace and interior ministry, witnesses said. It lasted for about an hour but appeared to have stopped by 1400 GMT (7pm PKT), a Reuters journalist said.

There was no word yet of any casualties.

The electoral commission was due on Thursday to announce provisional results from Sunday’s election in which Embalo faced off against top challenger Fernando Dias. Both sides had claimed victory in the first round of voting.

Embalo was seeking to become the first president in three decades to win a second consecutive term in Guinea-Bissau, a small coastal nation between Senegal and Guinea. He could not immediately be reached.

A spokesperson for Embalo, Antonio Yaya Seidy, told Reuters that unidentified gunmen attacked the election commission to prevent an announcement of the vote results.

He said the men were affiliated with Dias, without providing evidence. A spokesperson for Dias did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Former Prime Minister Domingos Simoes Pereira, who lost to Embalo in a contested runoff in 2019 and has backed Dias in this election, said Dias had nothing to do with the incident.

Dias was meeting election observers when “some people erupted in the room to announce that there were gunshots in the centre of the town,” said Pereira, who said he was in the same meeting. Dias was safe and in Bissau, Pereira said.

Guinea-Bissau had been shaken by at least nine coups and attempted coups between 1974, when it gained independence from Portugal, and 2020, when Embalo took office.

Embalo has said he has survived three coup attempts during his time in office. His critics have accused him of manufacturing crises as an excuse for crackdowns.