Losing candidates Touré and Kouyaté claim Guinea election fraud

Two candidates squeezed out of the second round of Guinea’s presidential election are crying foul. Third-placed Sidya Touré claims that he has been swindled out of his rightful place in the run-off, while fourth-placed Lansana Kouyaté also claims there was electoral fraud.

AFP

The 18 July run-off will see former prime minister Cellou Dalein Diallo face veteran opposition leader Alpha Condé.

But a furious Touré, who leads the Union of Republican Forces (UFR), claims that there has been “manipulation of the figures, refusal to apply the law in relation to certain candidates, unimaginable interference”.

And he accuses an employee of the International Organisation of Francophonie (OIF) of collusion with the electoral commission to fix the results against him.

“We noticed in the first two days that the UFR was in a position to get into the second round,” he said on Sunday. “Then, all of a sudden – after the arrival of a computer expert from the OIF - in the space of just one night we saw major changes which put us in the position we’ve been in ever since, that’s to say at about 16 per cent.”

“One thing I am sure of is that I could have done much better if it hadn’t been for this fraud,” declared Kouyaté, a former prime minister who heads the National Development party (PEDN).

While analysts do cite the fact that there was some fraud committed, the general consensus is that some mismanagement is better than no elections at all. Kouyaté does not agree. The fraud that has been committed here "is sufficient to make trouble in the country. I don't wish for that trouble. It is my country. We have fought very hard in order to get democracy," he told RFI.

But he seems ready to bargain with the two candidates who have made it to the run-off and claims that they had contacted him even before the first round of voting had taken place.

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02:38

Interview with Lansana Kouyaté

Laura Angela Bagnetto

“Let me say that there is contact via third parties. In fact this contact had started even before the first round, which seemed a little odd to me … We had to wait for the first round results to be able to work out what alliances were possible. There is no single party line in our party. I’m consulting with people.”

Kouyaté says that he is not ruling out an alliance but, “Is it up to us to approach these two candidates? No, it’s them who have to come to us to buy what we have to offer, isn’t it?”