Alpha Conde wins third term in office in controversial Guinean presidential election

President Alpha Conde has secured a third term in office by winning Guinea’s controversial presidential election with 59.5 percent of the vote.

The electoral authority president Kabinet Cisse said Conde’s main opponent Cellou Dalein Diallo polled 33.5 percent of the vote.

The announcement on Saturday October 24, came after days of deadly violence in the wake of the October 18 vote. While the opposition said 27 people have been killed, officials have put the death toll at about 10.

Doubting the independence of the electoral authority, Diallo had on Monday October 19 declared himself victorious before the results were announced. This triggered confrontations between his supporters and security forces.

In an interview with DW’s French for Africa Service, Alpha Souleymane Ba Fisher a lawmaker from the ruling RPG party, accused opposition candidate Cellou Dalein Diallo of stoking unnecessary political tension.

Fisher said;

“He invited his activists to take to the streets and attack people so that the country would fall into chaos.”

In 2010, Conde became Guinea’s first democratically elected leader after decades of military rule. He was re-elected in 2015. Before becoming President, Conde had been a long-standing opposition figure who was jailed and exiled for his views against Guinea’s military government.

Diallo on the other hand, is a former prime minister who also finished runner-up to Conde in the 2010 and 2015 elections.

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