Breaches and irregularities were observed in a certain
number of constituencies, preventing a significant number of votes from being
taken into account, and could therefore put into question the sincerity of
certain results," the diplomats said in a joint statement, pointing to
issues in eight out of 38 constituencies. "I don't pay attention to all
this," Alpha Conde said in an interview with the AFP news agency on
Tuesday, responding to fraud allegations and the opposition's calls for the
vote to be scrapped.
Those who are thinking of destabilizing Guinea are making a
mistake. Guinea will never be destabilized," he said, responding to the
threat of mass demonstrations by his opponents. "Every party has its view,
but it is their responsibility to send their views to the Supreme Court, which
is the only jurisdiction with the authority to decide," he said. "I
am waiting for the outcome. According to partial and provisional results
released 10 days after the vote, Conde's ruling Rally of the Guinean People
(RPG) party is in the lead. The party had already claimed it would be able to
command a majority in the country's national assembly.
Fought for democracy
Conde, who long led the political opposition to the late
dictator Lansana Conte, became Guinea's first democratically elected president
in 2010. The 75-year-old said he had "fought for democracy for 50
years", insisting he had himself been a victim of electoral fraud
"several times" at the hands of men who were "prime ministers at
the time", referring to former prime minister and opposition coalition
spokesman Sidya Toure, as well as Cellou Dalein Diallo and Lansana Kouyate who
also served under general Conte's 1984-2008 regime.
I've always fought
for transparency and I've always said that under my presidency, all elections
will be free, democratic and transparent," Conde said. The last
parliamentary elections in Guinea took place in June 2002 during the
dictatorship of Conte, who died in December 2008 after 24 years in power. Last
month's legislative elections - which were repeatedly delayed because of
disagreements between the government and the opposition - were meant to allow
Guinea to turn the page on a troubled transition following Conte's death.
Allegations of
irregularities
But since the start of the year violence linked to the
election process and inter-ethnic strife has left dozens dead and hundreds
wounded in the impoverished West African country. Guinea's main opposition
parties claim the September polls were marred by a string of irregularities,
including ballot stuffing, voter intimidation and minors casting ballots.
Tensions rose further when the Independent National
Electoral Commission (CENI) was slow to announce the results, blamed by Conde
on a manual tally. Given the state of our roads results could not arrive in
time," he said. Under Guinea's election law, the Supreme Court has to
rubberstamp the final results within 10 days of polls closing.
On Tuesday, 30 young opposition supporters were detained for
staging an unsanctioned protest against the alleged irregularities, a security
official said. Alpha Barry, spokesman for a special elections-related security
force, said the demonstrators gathered to denounce the disappearance of a
ballot box in Conakry's administrative district where the office of the
president is located.
Source: Aljazeera
