Conde Declared Winner in Guinea’s Presidential Election

Sunday, October 25, 2020

Guinea President Alpha Conde addresses his supporters at a campaign rally in Conakry on October 16, 2020. The 82-year-old president is bidding for a third term in office in Sunday's presidential elections.

AFP

By Kemo Cham

Sierra Leone Correspondent

Nation Media Group

Celebration break out in Conakry and elsewhere in the country among Conde’s supporters after the announcement.

Main challenger Cellou Dalein Diallo, who got 33.5 percent of the total votes, has rejected the results.

Alpha Conde has been declared winner of the presidential election in Guinea.

The 82-old-incumbent won a landslide in the first round of the voting on October 18, garnering 59.5 percent of the votes cast, according to preliminary results issued by the National Electoral Commission on Saturday.

Conde was challenged by 11 candidates, with his main challenger been Cellou Dalein Diallo, who got 33.5 percent of the total votes.

Diallo’s party has rejected the result and said it intends to present evidence of “grand fraud” to the Constitutional Court, which must certify the final result before the winner takes office.

Diallo has eight days to file his complaints with the court, as per laws.

A police officer looks on as protesters gesture and throw stones, during a mass protest the morning after preliminary results were released for five communes in Conakry on October 21, 2020.

AFP 

Celebration broke out in Conakry and elsewhere in the country among Conde’s supporters after the announcement.

In opposition dominated areas of the capital, Conakry, however, there were protests by supporters of Diallo who clashed with police who fired tear gas to disperse them.

Opposition protests

The outcome means a third term of five years for Conde, who controversially changed the country’s constitution, which previously allowed for only two terms.

The opposition and pro-democracy campaigners criticized his action.

The run up to the election was marred by violence, with dozens of people killed.

On Friday the government shutdown internet and phone lines to international calls from Guinea amidst protests by opposition supporters.

Diallo, a former Prime Minister of Guinea, declared himself president a day after the vote, prompting criticism from both in and out of Guinea.

A coalition of civil society activists, which opposed Conde’s candidature from the beginning, have called for nationwide protest starting on Monday.

The Defence of the Constitution, which comprises activists and some opposition political parties, described Conde’s victory as amounting to a constitutional coup.