Conde’s main challenger is opposition leader Cellou Dalein Diallo. Similar clashes this week killed at least three people and injured a few 50.
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Plainclothes police officers stood vigil at polling sites where a few people waited for hours in the rain to cast their ballots.
“These people trust me, I will be worthy of their trust”, he said, as his supporters blocked the main road through the capital for tens of kilometres.
In others there were complaints that paperwork and officials had not arrived by late morning, and that a few voters’ names were absent from the register.
Crowds caused delays at a few polling stations, while many voters brought along chairs and bottled water for the occasion.
Conde dismissed the calls for a postponement, and the Independent National Electoral Commission (CENI) also said it was ready to hold the vote as scheduled, declaring Saturday that more than 90 percent of the voter cards had been distributed.
Voting hours will probably be extended past the 6 p.m. closing, Amadou Salifou Kebe, spokesman for the electoral body, said by phone. President Alpha Conde later won the country’s first-ever democratic election in 2010.
Calls for calm multiplied on Friday, the day after two people were killed in pre-election violence.
Sidya Toure, a former prime minister who placed third against Conde in 2010, denounced problems with the vote. “He hasn’t yet returned”, said Habib Balde, nervous he wouldn’t be able to vote.
The results of the first round are not expected until Tuesday at the earliest. An official said, however, that the provisional outcome was not expected before October. 15 or 16.
It was not immediately clear what triggered the clashes, but Conde on Thursday rejected a demand by opposition candidates to postpone the vote to allow time to rectify what they said were irregularities in the process.
“Violence is still quite likely”, Alexandre Breining, analyst with Africa Practice said by phone from Conakry.
“He is supporting the government”, one opposition protester told Al Jazeera as a man was led away bleeding heavily from the head.
An African Union observer mission and a 72-member European Union delegation are in Guinea to monitor the ballot.
His campaign has championed large infrastructure projects to improve electricity and promised more to come.
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But his opponents are stressing a less positive backdrop, like the nation’s almost two year battle against the Ebola virus.
