Sao Tome, Feb. 10, 2026 (Lusa) - The presidential guard of Sao Tome and Principe on Tuesday denied interference to limit the functioning of the Constitutional Court, as reported by the institution, and reaffirmed its commitment to strict compliance with the law.

In a statement sent to Lusa, the command of the Presidential Guard states that its action "results from regular and permanent security patrol procedures, since the building in question is located in an area covered by the security perimeter under its responsibility".

"These actions are part of normal service and do not constitute any interference, conditioning or limitation on the functioning of sovereign bodies or their respective institutions," the document reads.

The institution "reaffirms its commitment to strict compliance with the law, respect for the institutions of the Republic and institutional neutrality, basing its actions on exclusively professional and preventive criteria".

On Monday, the São Tomé Constitutional Court reported that its headquarters, behind the presidency office, had been closed since 2 February "by members of the Presidential Guard and the National Police, without any authorisation from the president or vice-president of this sovereign institution to do so".

According to an order from the Constitutional Court sent to Lusa, this situation "has prevented, to date, the physical access of the presiding judges to the Court's premises, as well as all employees assigned to the Constitutional Court, with serious damage to the regular exercise of constitutional jurisdiction."

The vice-president of the Constitutional Court, Kótia Menezes, who signed the order, states that on 5 February, one-fifth of the MPs requested "abstract preventive review of the constitutionality and legality" of the bill to repeal the interpretative law relating to the judicial system and "which determines the early termination of the mandates of the judges of the Constitutional Court, as well as the recomposition of this sovereign body".

The Vice-President of the Constitutional Court ruled that, as long as the physical impediment to access to the Constitutional Court's headquarters remains, "all procedural, administrative and secretarial acts necessary for the processing of this case shall be validly performed outside the Court's premises, at a location to be indicated by the Vice-President".

In this regard, she ruled "the immediate notification of the country's president of the pending request for preventive review" of the interpretative law, "informing him that [the Head of State] is constitutionally prevented from promulgating the law that is the subject of this case until the final decision of the Constitutional Court," which has 25 days to rule.

In recent days, Lusa has verified the presence of armed members of the National Police at the Constitutional Court's premises, but not those of the presidential guard.

Lusa contacted the Ministry of Defence and Internal Order to obtain clarification on the presence of the police at the site, but received no response.

On 2 February, an absolute majority of 29 MPs met in plenary session at the University of São Tomé and Príncipe, under heavy police protection, and decided to dismiss the speaker of parliament, revoke the interpretative law and dismiss the five judges of the Constitutional Court, and elect the president of the Electoral Commission.

On the same day, the Constitutional Court declared the convening of the plenary session unconstitutional and the deliberations to be adopted null and void, but the decision was not accepted, and the speaker of parliament was replaced by the first vice-speaker of parliament.

According to sources in parliament, the revocation law was sent for promulgation by the country's president, Carlos Vila Nova, on Friday.

JYAF/AYLS // AYLS

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