Guinea’s president and main opposition candidate called for calm today when they voted in the country’s presidential election, after days of electoral clashes. Conde defeated Diallo in a 2010 election marked by clashes between their supporters along ethnic lines.
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Counting began late on Sunday and CENI is officially supposed to release results within 72 hours.
Mamadou Dionne, a 50-year-old accounting officer, said he had to wait an hour before voting started at a polling station set up in a school in Kaloum, the administrative and business district of the capital Conakry.
“What we observed, and what was reported to us, does not in my opinion mar the regularity of this election”, he said. Guinea was also affected by residual conflict from the civil wars in neighboring Liberia and Sierra Leone during the 1990s and 2000s.
Conde became Guinea’s first freely elected president in 2010.
The incumbent is hoping to trade on his five-year record of reforms, citing achievements such as an overhaul of the army and judiciary, as well as completion of a hydroelectric dam.
Earlier in the week, one person died and dozens of people were shot and wounded in riots on October 4 that saw supporters of Conde and Diallo face off against each other.
Diallo said Sunday: “It’s a time to be vigilant, to ensure that Guineans’ suffrage is respected…so that the best man wins”.
After a largely peaceful campaign, the demands for a postponement helped send tensions soaring as it fuelled a perception among opposition supporters that the race was stacked in favour of Conde, widely tipped to win a second term. The hope is that the world’s biggest reserves of bauxite can be developed under a second Conde administration.
Bakary Fofana, the president of the electoral commission, said on national radio that voters where envelopes have run out do not need to use them, and stations where materials came late can remain open until 8:00 p.m.
An African Union observer mission and a 72-member European Union delegation are in Guinea to monitor the ballot, along with 19,000 police and members of the security services.
“I call on each Guinean to vote in acceptance of the other and in calm and tranquility”, Conde said after voting.
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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 which for decades was run by dictators.
