African Party for the Independence of Guinea and Cape Verde Partido Africano para a Independência da Guiné e Cabo Verde | |
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| Abbreviation | PAIGC |
| Leader | Domingos Simões Pereira |
| Founder | Henri Labéry Amílcar Cabral |
| Founded | 19 September 1956 (69 years, 35 days) |
| Headquarters | Bissau,Guinea-Bissau |
| Youth wing | African Youth Amílcar Cabral |
| Women's wing | União Democrática das Mulheres da Guiné (UDEMU) |
| Ideology | Democratic socialism Social democracy Left-wing nationalism African nationalism Pan-Africanism Historical: Marxism[1] Marxism-Leninism[2] Democratic centralism[3] Ethno-regionalism[4] |
| Political position | Centre-left[5] Historical: Left-wing |
| National affiliation | Inclusive Alliance Platform – Terra Ranka |
| International affiliation | World Anti-Imperialist Platform[6] Socialist International(consultative)[7] |
| Colors | Red,green andyellow |
| Slogan | Unidade e Luta("Unity and Struggle") |
| National People's Assembly | 54 / 102 |
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TheAfrican Party for the Independence of Guinea and Cape Verde (Portuguese:Partido Africano para a Independência da Guiné e Cabo Verde,PAIGC) is apolitical party inGuinea-Bissau. Originally formed to peacefully campaign for independence fromPortugal, the party turned to armed conflict in the 1960s and was one of the belligerents in theGuinea-Bissau War of Independence. Towards the end of the war, the party established a socialistone-party state, which remained intact until multi-party democracy was introduced in the early 1990s. Although the party won thefirst multi-party elections in 1994, it was removed from power in the1999–2000 elections. However, it returned to office after winningparliamentary elections in 2004 andpresidential elections in 2005, since which it has remained the largest party in theNational People's Assembly.
The PAIGC also governedCape Verde, from its independence in 1975 to 1980. After the1980 coup d'état in Guinea-Bissau, the Cape Verdean branch of the PAIGC was converted into a separate party, theAfrican Party for the Independence of Cape Verde.
The party was established inBissau on 19 September 1956 as theAfrican 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 byHenri Labéry andAmílcar Cabral.[8] The party had six founding members; Cabral, his brotherLuís,Aristides Pereira, Fernando Fortes, Júlio Almeida and Elisée Turpin.[8]Rafael Paula Barbosa became its first president, whilst Amílcar Cabral was appointed secretary-general.[8]
ThePidjiguiti massacre in 1959 sawPortuguese soldiers open fire on protesting dockworkers, killing 50. The massacre caused a large segment of the population to swing towards the PAIGC's push for independence, although the Portuguese authorities still considered the movement to be irrelevant, and took no serious action in trying to suppress it. However, the massacre convinced the PAIGC leadership to resort to armed struggle against the Portuguese, and in September 1959 the party established a new headquarters inConakry in neighbouringGuinea.[8] In 1961, the PAIGC combined with the MozambicanFRELIMO and AngolanMPLA to establish theConference of Nationalist Organizations of the Portuguese Colonies (CONCP), a common party to coordinate the struggles for independence of Portuguese colonies across Africa. The three groups were often represented at international events by the CONCP.
Armed struggle against the Portuguese began in March 1962 with an abortive attack by PAIGC guerrillas onPraia.Guerrilla warfare was largely concentrated to the mainland Guinea, however, aslogistical reasons prevented an armed struggle on the Cape Verde islands. On the Cape Verde islands PAIGC worked in a clandestine manner. After being nearly crippled militarily, Amílcar Cabral ordered thatsabotage be the PAIGC's main weapon untilmilitary strength could be regained. On 23 January 1963 the PAIGC started theGuinea-Bissau War of Independence by attacking a Portuguese garrison inTite.[8] Frequent attacks in the north also took place. In that same month, attacks onpolice stations in Fulacunda and Buba were carried out not only by the PAIGC but also by theFLING.
In January 1966,Amílcar Cabral attended theTricontinental Conference 1966 inHavana and made a great impression onFidel Castro. As a result of this,Cuba agreed to supply artillery experts, doctors and technicians to assist in the independence struggle. The head of the Cuban Military Mission wasVíctor Dreke.[9] In the context of the ongoingCold War, PAIGC guerrillas also receivedKalashnikovs from theUSSR andrecoilless rifles from thePeople's Republic of China, with all three countries helping train guerrilla troops.SFR Yugoslavia sent a small cache of weapons to PAIGC in 1966.[10]
The first party congress took place at liberatedCassaca 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 guerrilla forces (The People's Guerrillas).[11]
The party also founded a Pilot School in Conakry in this period, led byLilica Boal from 1969 onward, with the goal of educating young fighters and war orphans.[12]
Como Island was the site of a majorbattle 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, thePortuguese army,navy and theair force (FAP) began theOperation Trident, acombined arms operation to retake theisland. 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 theCantanhez andQuitafine 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 ofPortuguese 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, buildingschools,hospitals, newhousing and improvingtelecommunications and theroad system, in an attempt to gain public favour in Guinea. PAIGC was the first African party to establish acomprehensive cooperative program with Sweden.[11]
However, in 1970, the FAP began to use similar weapons to those theUS was using in theVietnam War:napalm anddefoliants, 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 theOperation Green Sea, a Portuguese raid onConakry, in the neighbouringRepublic of Guinea, 400 amphibious troops attacked the city and freed 26 Portugueseprisoners of war kept there by the PAIGC. The USSR and Cuba began to send more weapons to Portuguese Guinea viaNigeria, notably severalIlyushin Il-14 aircraft to use as bombers.
Between August and November 1972 the party heldelections 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 underuniversal suffrage.[13] 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, wasassassinated 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.[14] 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,[15] 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.
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After achieving independence, the PAIGC was instituted as the sole legal political party ofGuinea-Bissau and Cape Verde, withLuís Cabral becoming President of Guinea-Bissau. A second set ofone-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 amilitary coup led byJoão Bernardo Vieira against Luís Cabral in November 1980. The Cape Verdean branch of PAIGC was subsequently converted into a separate party, theAfrican 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 in1984 and1989, 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.[16] Thegeneral elections also saw the introduction of the direct election of the president. Vieira beatKumba Ialá of theParty 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.[17]
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;[16][18] the post of Secretary-General was abolished at this congress.[16] An outbreak ofcivil war in June 1998 eventually led to the ousting of Vieira in May 1999.[19] A few days later, former Prime MinisterManuel Saturnino da Costa was named acting President of the PAIGC on 12 May 1999.[20] 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.[21][22] Benante's candidacy was supported by the junta, and he received 174 votes against 133 votes for the only opposing candidate.[22]
General elections were held in November 1999, with a presidential runoff on 16 January 2000. The elections saw the PAIGC lose power for the first time as PAIGC candidateMalam Bacai Sanhá lost to PRS leader Ialá in the presidential elections,[19] whilst the PAIGC were reduced to being the third-largest party in the National People's Assembly after being beaten by the PRS and theResistance of Guinea-Bissau-Bafatá Movement.
The2004 legislative elections saw the PAIGC regain its position as the largest party, winning 45 of 100 seats.[23] In May 2004 it formed a government with party leader,Carlos Gomes Júnior becoming prime minister. In the2005 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 appointedAristides 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 theUnited Social Democratic Party as the three parties sought to form a new government.[24] This led to a successful no-confidence vote against Aristides Gomes and his resignation late in the month; on 9 AprilMartinho 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.[25][26] 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".[27]
The PAIGC's seventh Ordinary Congress was held inGabú in June 2008.[28] 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.[29] Kabi,Cipriano Cassama (considered a dissident within the party and associated with Aristides Gomes), andBaciro Dja also contested the leadership election, but attracted comparatively little support.[28][29]
After Kabi dismissed the directors of customs, taxes and the treasury on 25 July 2008 without notifying the party, the PAIGC decided to withdraw from the three-party stability pact that was signed in March 2007.[30][31] Vieira then dismissed Kabi and appointedCarlos Correia as prime minister on 5 August.[32]Parliamentary elections were subsequently held in November 2008, with the PAIGC winning two-thirds of the seats. Inpresidential 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 amilitary coup in April prevented it taking place.General elections were eventually held in 2014, and saw PAIGC candidateJosé 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 the2023 legislative election as part of a broad coalition, the Inclusive Alliance Platform – Terra Ranka, that includedUM,PCD,PSD andMDG and won a majority of the seats.[33]
| Election | Party candidate | Votes | % | Votes | % | Result |
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| First round | Second round | |||||
| 1994 | João Bernardo Vieira | 142,577 | 46.20% | 161,083 | 52.02% | Elected Y |
| 1999–2000 | Malam Bacai Sanhá | 86,724 | 23.37% | 97,670 | 28.0% | Lost N |
| 2005 | 158,276 | 35.45% | 196,759 | 47.65% | LostN | |
| 2009 | 133,786 | 37.54% | 224,259 | 63.31% | ElectedY | |
| 2012 | Carlos Gomes Júnior | 154,797 | 48.97% | – | CancelledN | |
| 2014 | José Mário Vaz | 257,572 | 40.89% | 364,394 | 61.92% | ElectedY |
| 2019 | Domingos Simões Pereira | 222,870 | 40.13% | 254,468 | 46.45% | LostN |
| Election | Votes | % | Seats | +/– | Position | Government |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1976–77 | 136,022 | 80.04% | 150 / 150 | New | 1st | Sole legal party |
| 1984 | 150 / 150 |  0 | 1st | Sole legal party | ||
| 1989 | 214,201 | 95.80% | 150 / 150 | 0 | 1st | Sole legal party |
| 1994 | 134,982 | 46.39% | 62 / 100 |  88 | 1st | Majority |
| 1999 | 64,215 | 18.04% | 24 / 102 | 38 | 3rd | Opposition |
| 2004 | 145,316 | 33.88% | 45 / 100 |  21 | 1st | Coalition |
| 2008 | 227,350 | 49.52% | 67 / 100 | 22 | 1st | Majority |
| 2014 | 281,408 | 47.98% | 57 / 102 | 10 | 1st | Majority |
| 2019 | 212,148 | 35.22% | 47 / 102 | 10 | 1st | Coalition(2019–2020) |
| Opposition(2020–2023) | ||||||
| 2023 | Part of Inclusive Alliance Platform | 54 / 100 | 8 | 1st | Majority(2023–2025) | |
| Opposition(2025) | ||||||
| 2025 | Part of Inclusive Alliance Platform | TBA | TBA | 1st | TBA | |
During theCold War, the PAIGC received support from the governments ofChina,Cuba,Soviet Union,Senegal,Guinea,Libya,Algeria,Poland,Czechoslovakia andGhana.[34]
At independence, the victorious liberation movement of Guinea-Bissau, PAIGC, the Partido Africano para a Independência de Guiné-Bissau e Cabo Verde (African Party for the Independence of Guinea-Bissau and Cape Verde) introduced a political and economic order based on Marxist-Leninist principles.
The only lawful party since independence, the PAIGC is formally committed to the principle of "democratic centralism".
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