BISSAU, Feb 27, 2025 (BSS/AFP) - Guinea-Bissau's opposition has called for a nationwide strike beginning Thursday, the day it says the mandate of President Umaro Sissoco Embalo officially ends.

Embalo was sworn in for a five-year term on February 27, 2020, after a disputed election in the small West African nation, and on Sunday announced elections will only be held in November.

"We call on the population to stay at home. All markets, shops and offices will be closed," former premier Nuno Gomes Nabiam said Wednesday in a speech on behalf of an opposition coalition.

"We call for total paralysis of the country," he told hundreds of supporters after a meeting of coalition leaders.

The opposition insists Embalo's term expires on February 27, but gatherings have been banned for several weeks by the interior ministry in the run-up to the date.

Security forces were deployed Wednesday at strategic points across the capital.

"We have taken the legal measures provided for by law to guarantee the safety of our population," said Interior Minister Botche Cande.

A high-level mission from the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) met leaders of several parties earlier this week to try to renew political dialogue.

Embalo dissolved the opposition-dominated parliament in December 2023, three days after armed clashes that he presented as an attempted coup.

He then set early legislative elections for November 2024, before postponing them indefinitely by presidential decree after citing logistical and financial difficulties.