Incumbent President Alpha Conde, the country’s first democratically elected president who is tipped to win a second term, led appeals for calm after around a dozen people were killed in deadly clashes between rival camps on Thursday and Friday.
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“We will not participate in a sham election”.
Issues arose at several polling locations in the morning, with a few venues opening later than expected.
Voting hours will probably be extended past the 6 p.m. closing, Amadou Salifou Kebe, spokesman for the electoral body, said by phone. On Saturday, the group representing his opponents demanded that the election be postponed to give more time to distribute registration cards.
Due in the six months after the presidential investiture, the legislatives had been consistently put off, amid accusations of manipulation of the voting lists and opposition to the electoral commission.
Speaking after voting in the capital, Conde said: “I ask all Guineans, whatever their party, to fulfil their civic duty peacefully and calmly”. The virus has killed more than 2,500 people in Guinea alone and isolated parts of the country, which could mean lower voter turnout in those remote areas.
September 27, 2011: Clashes break out between security forces and opposition supporters in Conakry after an opposition gathering is banned.
The seven opposition candidates were involved in a rally earlier this month and called for a delay of the election by at least one week in light of what they describe as electoral “irregularities”.
If no candidate receives a majority of votes, the election will go to a runoff. “What we hope for are free and transparent elections, and above all credible so that the results will be accepted by everyone”. Guinea suffered under decades of corrupt dictatorship after independence from France in 1958.
Conde’s campaign, whose slogan is “progress is on the march”, has championed infrastructure projects to improve power supply in the poor, former French colony. Guinea was also affected by residual conflict from the civil wars in neighboring Liberia and Sierra Leone during the 1990s and 2000s.
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The UN Human Rights High Commissioner is appealing for calm ahead of the first round of Presidential elections in Guinea this Sunday.
