Guinea-Bissau’s electoral commission has said it can no longer complete the November 23 presidential election after armed men seized ballots, tally sheets and computers from its offices, and destroyed the servers storing the results.

Army officers seized power on November 26, one day before the commission was due to announce provisional results from the tightly contested vote. Several buildings, including the electoral commission headquarters, came under attack during the takeover.

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“We do not have the material and logistic conditions to follow through with the electoral process,” Idrissa Djalo, a senior electoral commission official, said in a statement on Tuesday.

“They confiscated the computers of all 45 staff members who were at the commission that day,” he said, adding that tally sheets from all regions had been seized and the server where the results were stored had been destroyed.

“It is impossible to complete the electoral process without the tally sheets from the regions,” Djalo said.

Major-General Horta Inta-A was sworn in as the new transitional president on November 27, halting the election process. The military has since tightened restrictions, banning demonstrations and strikes.

Inta-A has promised a one-year transitional period and on Saturday appointed a 28-member cabinet made up largely of figures aligned with the deposed president.

Disputed vote and political fallout

The coup unfolded three days after the presidential election, with both main contenders – incumbent President Umaro Sissoco Embalo and opposition candidate Fernando Dias da Costa – claiming victory before provisional results were due. No results have been released since.

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During the takeover, Embalo told French media by phone that he had been deposed and arrested. He has since fled to Brazzaville, the capital of the Republic of Congo.

Nigeria said President Bola Tinubu had authorised protection for Dias da Costa, citing an “imminent threat to his life”.

The PAIGC, one of the country’s dominant political parties, had been barred from presenting a candidate in the election – a decision condemned by civil rights groups who described it as part of a broader crackdown on the opposition.

Guinea-Bissau’s new military authorities are facing growing pressure from the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) to restore constitutional rule and allow the election process to resume.

A high-level delegation from the bloc, led by its current chairman and Sierra Leone’s President Julius Maada Bio, met military leaders and electoral commission officials in Bissau on Monday to urge a “complete restoration of constitutional order”.

ECOWAS leaders, who have threatened sanctions against those undermining the democratic process, are due to meet on December 14 to discuss the crisis.