Leading Guinea opposition leader Cellou Dalein Diallo said on Saturday he would participate in Sunday’s presidential election after the constitutional court rejected a request for a last-minute postponement.
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European Union monitors were observing the vote, whose results were not expected for several days.
The UN Human Rights High Commissioner is appealing for calm ahead of the first round of Presidential elections in Guinea this Sunday.
Casting his vote in the Conakry neighborhood of Boulbinet, Conde, dressed in a white tunic, reiterated an earlier call for calm.
“He is supporting the government”, one opposition protester told Al Jazeera as a man was led away bleeding heavily from the head.
Conde, whose campaign slogan promises to deliver a “KO blow” to his opponents, has boasted of his intention to rout his rivals in the first round of the election.
Five years of civilian rule and Guinea still faces enormous problems. “We must hope there will not be [violence] after the elections and that the people of Guinea show maturity”, he said on Sunday, according to the BBC.
President Alpha Conde is running against seven candidates in the West African nation that has been hard hit this year by the Ebola crisis.
Political analyst Bano Barry said politicians in Guinea have long drawn support from their ethnic groups.
The imbalance is plain in the leafy streets of downtown Conakry, where yellow ribbons crisscross the streets and the president’s billboards far outnumber those of his opponents.
Almost 19 000 police and other security personnel were on duty, with all of Guinea’s borders closed for the day and only electoral observers, officials or those with special permits allowed to drive on the roads.
“Even the gendarmes [police] are against us”, said Amedou Bah, who told Al Jazeera his shop in Madina had been burned down in Friday’s violence.
Despite being rich in bauxite, the ore used to produce aluminium, the country is one of the world’s poorest and was blindsided by a severe outbreak of Ebola, which began in the country’s southern forests in December 2013 and then spread to neighbouring countries.
Bah’s fears underline what analysts and voters say is a wider truth about politics in Guinea: Many people choose how they vote based on a candidate’s ethnic group.
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His campaign has championed large infrastructure projects to improve electricity and promised more to come.
