In Guinea, there is still no official winner of the first round of the presidential election last Sunday. The Electoral Commission announced new partial preliminary results on Thursday night, but the figures for three constituencies are missing. The retiring Commissioners condemn “serious irregularities” in the counting procedure.
With our special correspondent in Conakry, Charlotte idrac
Ceni is due to meet again on Friday, but two commissioners withdrew from the work of presenting the results at a time when tensions continue to rise in the capital, Conakry.
In a statement sent to the press, Diogo Baldé and Marie Hélène Sylla, commissioners at Céni, condemned “serious irregularities observed in the tabular procedure of the results”. “Our observations to ensure transparency, reliability and sincerity of the results” have not been taken into account, they write. Marie Hélène Sylla joined by telephone: she has not taken part in the work since Thursday, and it is not a “resignation” but a “withdrawal”. It rejects the “process”, the totalisation procedure at Commission level.
Ceni has therefore already announced the figures for 37 of the 38 constituencies in the country. Mamou’s results are still lacking, and abroad, from the DRC and Gambia, according to his spokesman. According to Mamadi 3 Kaba, work must be resumed with a view to totalizing these figures, which must be announced in the wake. But for the overall preliminary results, it may still be necessary to wait: the spokesman explains this because of the “solemnity” of this step.
FNDC calls for demonstrations
In this context, tensions remain very high in the upper suburbs of Conakry. Witnesses talk of houses and shops stoned and burned. There are also shootings early on Friday morning, riots reported in several neighborhoods and residents say they are threatened.
At the end of the morning, about twenty military pick-ups left the Hamdallaye roundabout in the direction of Le Prince Road, the “axis” that serves neighborhoods considered favorable to the opposition. On Thursday night on national television, the Minister of Territorial Administration announced the requisition of the army to maintain order in the country.
Finally, the National Front for Defense of Constitution announced a Friday in a press release in which it demands the departure of Alpha Condé and calls for demonstrations from Monday across the country.
Significant internet disruptions have also been reported since Thursday night.
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