Election campaign suspended after pre-poll violence in Guinea

Electoral campaigning was suspended and demonstrations have been banned by Guinea’s interim government after one person died and 50 were hurt in violent pre-election rally clashes. 

Reuters

The ban came after interim Prime Minister Jean-Marie Dore held an emergency cabinet meeting to discuss the crisis.

Followers of former Prime Minister Cellou Dalein Diallo's Union of Democratic Forces in Guinea (UDFG) and veteran opposition figure Alpha Conde's Rally for the People of Guinea (RPG) party fought in separate clashes on Saturday and Sunday.

The electoral campaign was "provisionally suspended pending a meeting Monday between the government and the two candidates who have already given their agreement for this meeting," the government said in a statement.

Guinea's Information Minister, Aboubacar Sylla, said "all those who for whatever reason do not respect the ban on demonstrations during this suspension of the election campaign will be brought before the courts of the republic".

Diallo and Conde are due to face each other in presidential elections on 19 September. In June’s first round vote Diallo won 43.69 per cent whilst Conde took 18.25 per cent. Most political parties claimed that the vote was handled fraudulently.

The June vote was Guinea's first democratic poll since independence from France in 1958. The country is currently led by a military junta headed by General Sekouba Konate.

The weekend’s violence followed Friday's announcement that the head of the
National Independent Election Commission (CENI) had been convicted of fraud.