Guinea’s Opposition Calls for Fresh Elections

Guinea’s president and main opposition candidate called for calm Sunday when they voted in the country’s presidential election, after days of electoral clashes and as polling stations reported late and insufficient materials.

About the credibility of the poll, Amos Sawyer, head of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) observers mission, told an online news website, guineenews.org: “It is too early to call for a cancellation of the vote”.

Conde came to power in the country’s first democratic election in 2010 following a military coup led by Camara.

The 77-year-old Conde is widely expected to win a second mandate, although the results were expected to be close enough to require a second round, probably against main rival Cellou Dalein Diallo.

Guinean soldiers and civilians queue to cast their votes during presidential elections in Conakry, Guinea, Sunday October. 11, 2015.

“The election was a masquerade which started yesterday and still continues today at the central (election) commission level”.

But Engel, who commended the fact that election day remained peaceful despite the glitches, said “the disputes that might arise in Guinea should be transferred to the judges rather than lived out in the street”.

In another sign of opposition discontent, former prime minister Sidya Toure, one of the election’s leading candidates, told private radio late on Monday that he was withdrawing any delegates he had won in the vote from the electoral process.

Two people were killed and at least 33 were wounded in Guinea on Friday in clashes between Conde and Diallo’s supporters.

Voter turnout was 65 percent, according to a source in the country´s independent electoral commission, who requested anonymity.

“If the opposition parties have complaints, their duty is to legal means and inform the constitutional court”, Naite said, referring to the country’s highest electoral authority. Results are something else. “The mission invites Guineans to act responsibly in order to protect the peace which prevailed during the vote”. In 2008, after the longtime strongman died, a military coup led to tumultuous rule until the junta’s leader agreed to go into exile. Security forces were seen heading to the area but it was not immediately clear how large the protests were.

Guinea endured decades of corrupt dictatorship after its independence from France in 1958.