Agenzia Fides REPORT -Guinea experiencing tensions and hopes following Alpha Conde victory
“Despite the tensions of the last hours and the loss of one life, we can say that the situation in society has not degraded and there is hope for the nascent democracy of Guinea," Fides has been told by a source from the Church of the Republic of Guinea, where yesterday, November 15, the Electoral Commission proclaimed the victory of Alpha Condé, in a second round of presidential elections. Condé, historic opponent of the various regimes that have ruled the country, got 52.5% of the vote against the 47.4% of his opponent, Cellou Dallein Diallo. In the Peul-majority neighborhoods of Conakry, Diallo's supporters (Diallo is Peul), took to the streets in protest for alleged fraud. Diallo, who has appealed to the Supreme Court, however, urged the population to remain calm. "One good thing is that the army was not deployed to patrol the streets. Instead, only the police intervened to quell the riots, firing into the air," says the source of Fides. "There are tensions mainly in the Peul-majority areas, partly diluted by the preparations for the Muslim festival of Eid al Adha," continues our source. "All in all, the situation could degenerate into chaos, but Guinean society has stood the test of the first truly democratic vote in the history of the country. This opens up good prospects for the presidential ballot to be held in Ivory Coast, because the two countries are very close and what happens in one has influence over the other." Politically, Conde was able to overturn the result of the first round, which had seen him finish second behind Diallo. "Diallo had reached an electoral agreement with the third in the first round, Sydia Touré, who has a good following in Guinea's Forest Region (on the border with Liberia and Sierra Leone), which had promised to transfer the votes of his supporters to Diallo. However, the voters of the Guinean Forest Region voted en masse for Condé, confounding the predictions of the vigil." "The Peuls are the only group, of the four ethnic groups in the country, that has never seen a President of its ethnic background. We hope that in the name of national unity, the new head of state be able to find a way to adequately represent this group in the new government," concludes the source of Fides.
http://www.fides.org/aree/news/newsdet.php?idnews=27817&lan=eng
“Despite the tensions of the last hours and the loss of one life, we can say that the situation in society has not degraded and there is hope for the nascent democracy of Guinea," Fides has been told by a source from the Church of the Republic of Guinea, where yesterday, November 15, the Electoral Commission proclaimed the victory of Alpha Condé, in a second round of presidential elections. Condé, historic opponent of the various regimes that have ruled the country, got 52.5% of the vote against the 47.4% of his opponent, Cellou Dallein Diallo. In the Peul-majority neighborhoods of Conakry, Diallo's supporters (Diallo is Peul), took to the streets in protest for alleged fraud. Diallo, who has appealed to the Supreme Court, however, urged the population to remain calm. "One good thing is that the army was not deployed to patrol the streets. Instead, only the police intervened to quell the riots, firing into the air," says the source of Fides. "There are tensions mainly in the Peul-majority areas, partly diluted by the preparations for the Muslim festival of Eid al Adha," continues our source. "All in all, the situation could degenerate into chaos, but Guinean society has stood the test of the first truly democratic vote in the history of the country. This opens up good prospects for the presidential ballot to be held in Ivory Coast, because the two countries are very close and what happens in one has influence over the other." Politically, Conde was able to overturn the result of the first round, which had seen him finish second behind Diallo. "Diallo had reached an electoral agreement with the third in the first round, Sydia Touré, who has a good following in Guinea's Forest Region (on the border with Liberia and Sierra Leone), which had promised to transfer the votes of his supporters to Diallo. However, the voters of the Guinean Forest Region voted en masse for Condé, confounding the predictions of the vigil." "The Peuls are the only group, of the four ethnic groups in the country, that has never seen a President of its ethnic background. We hope that in the name of national unity, the new head of state be able to find a way to adequately represent this group in the new government," concludes the source of Fides.
http://www.fides.org/aree/news/newsdet.php?idnews=27817&lan=eng
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