President Lansana Conte of Guinea was on course to extend his 20-year rule over the impoverished west African country after elections on Sunday, despite failing health and opposition complaints of ballot-rigging.
The chainsmoking Conte (69) was too ill to campaign much but aides denied that he was dying. They said diabetes had left him with a ”bad foot” but not a ”bad head”.
The opposition accused the president, who seized power in a 1984 coup, of misrule, corruption and thuggery and called for an election boycott lest the ballot legitimise his regime.
But Mamadou Bhoye Barry (50) the obscure leader of a small opposition party, the Union for National Progress, broke ranks with mainstream opposition groups and stood against the president, giving voters an apparent choice.
His party is suspected of being bankrolled by the ruling party, though, to give the impression of a real contest.
Conte was elected president in 1993 and changed the constitution to permit a third term. Analysts did not doubt he would win yesterday’s election. Voters were seen casting ballots even before polls officially opened. – Guardian Unlimited