Guinea poll date set

A presidential decree read on state TV announced that Guinea’s much-delayed presidential run-off will be held on October 24, ending weeks of speculation over an unprecedented election in a military-ruled country that has known only strongman rule since it gained independence.

The election was abruptly cancelled just days before the scheduled vote last month.

Mohamed Kasse, director of the government press office, read the decree on the evening newscast.

It was signed by the military general who is the president of the interim government and who agreed to hand over power to civilians last year following an army-led massacre and the exile of the country’s military ruler.

The West African country’s remarkable political turnaround was capped by presidential elections in June in which 24 candidates faced off.

The election was largely deemed transparent, an incredible accomplishment in Guinea, which has been ruled by strongmen since it gained independence from France in 1958.

But trouble started when none of the candidates received a majority, forcing a run-off between the top two finishers who happen to be from the country’s two largest ethnic groups.

The two could not agree on a date for the second round and the election was repeatedly delayed.

Supporters of the 22 defeated candidates peeled off on ethnic lines, a dangerous development in a nation bordered by three countries recovering from civil war.

The last date – set for September 19 – was called off just days before the vote after the election commission announced that voter ID cards ordered from South Africa had not arrived and that the custom-made envelopes in which ballots were to be placed were still in the process of being ordered.

Although independent election experts said the delay was largely technical, leading candidate Cellou Dalein Diallo accused the interim government of favouring his rival and purposely delaying the vote in order to give the underdog a chance to catch up in the polls.

Mr Diallo is a Peul, the country’s largest ethnic group representing around 40% of the population of 10 million. He received 44% of the first round vote, more than double the tally of his rival Alpha Conde, who is a Malinke, the second-largest ethnic group and who got 18%.

Peul supporters of Mr Diallo clashed with Mr Conde’s Malinke party members in street fights that left 54 wounded the week before the planned September vote, raising the spectre of further violence along ethnic lines depending on the outcome of the October 24 vote.