A group of candidates running in what many hoped would be Guinea’s first free election since independence have denounced what they called widespread fraud in the poll.
A spokesperson for 17 of the 24 candidates who ran in Sunday’s race issued a statement on Wednesday alleging ballot-stuffing in the capital, Conakry, and across the country. Three of the frontrunners also complained of irregularities.
Pathe Dieng, the head of operations for the West African nation’s Independent Electoral Commission, however, denied the allegations and said there had been “no massive fraud” in the vote.
Preliminary results were expected by Wednesday, but the Supreme Court allotted the electoral commission two more days to publish initial results. Commission spokesperson Thierno Seydou Bayo said more time was needed to count all votes and the commission would not publish partial findings.
If no candidate wins a 50% majority, the top two finishers will face off in a second round July 18.
United States Ambassador Patricia Newton Moller said international observers had “found no evidence of widespread or systematic fraud” and called on political parties “to refrain from overstating electoral issues for political gain”.
The US-based Carter Centre, which sent observers to monitor the vote, said the electoral commission had “exhibited good-faith efforts in its attempts to ensure a credible, transparent, and peaceful process”.
But the same statement added that “an uneven delivery of service to voters in different parts of the country and confusion over proper election day procedures have the potential to undermine the principles of universal and equal suffrage”.
Abe Sylla, a spokesperson for 17 of the 24 parties who fielded candidates in the race, said that “in Conakry as well as in the interior of the country there has been ballot-box stuffing”.
The party of former prime minister Cellou Dalein Diallo also alleged irregularities, saying some ballot boxes containing 67 000 votes had “disappeared” and then been found by party supporters.
Long-time opposition leader Alpha Conde complained that in some locations the electoral commission had set up polling stations dozens of kilometres away from where people had been registered to vote and then declared it illegal, for security reasons, for unauthorised persons to move around in vehicles.
Sunday’s vote had been praised as the first free vote since independence from France in 1958.
One-party state
Guinea, which hosts one of the world’s largest reserves of bauxite, the raw material used to make aluminium, and billions of dollars worth of iron ore, was a one-party state until its first coup in 1984. The country was then ruled for 24 years under the military dictatorship of Lansana Conte. When Conte died in December 2008, a little-known army captain, Moussa “Dadis” Camara, seized power and promised elections in which he would not run.
Amid steady rumours Camara was going to enter the race and try to stay in power, pro-democracy demonstrators demanded he step down, prompting security forces to massacre 150 of the demonstrators at a Conakry stadium in September. The tragedy sparked infighting within the military over who would take the blame. Camara was then shot in the head on December 3 by his presidential guard chief.
Camara survived and has stayed quietly in exile in Burkina Faso as part of a tenuous peace deal that paved the way for Sunday’s vote.
Interim leader General Sekouba Konate, along with all members of his junta and a transitional governing council comprising civilians, are barred from running in the vote.
Moller said the ballot was “a remarkable achievement for the people of Guinea. Those who see their political prospects diminishing should not attempt to drag down the legitimacy of these elections with them”.
“Elections are never perfect,” she said, adding that reports from international observers showed “that every effort was made to ensure that the process was fair, and where issues arose, they do not appear to have been systematic, nor do they undermine the credibility of these polls.”
Associated Press Writer Todd Pitman contributed to this report from Dakar, Senegal. — Sapa-AP