Guinea’s main opposition leader Cellou Dalein Diallo has made an appeal to neighboring West African states to turn attention to the country’s ongoing political crisis as President Alpha Conde is seeking a third term in October elections, reported Africa News.
The 15-nation West African group, ECOWAS, supports democracy in the region. The bloc recently pressed Mali’s junta, who seized power last month, to return the country to civilian rule.
On Thursday, Diallo said that he would like to see the regional body turn its attention to his country. The 68-year-old has denounced Conde’s decision to run again in the Oct. 18 elections as unconstitutional as the country has a two-term limit for presidents. For months, tens of thousands of people have taken to the streets in Guinea to oppose another term for Conde.
“We are a little jealous of the promptness with which ECOWAS acted in Mali to help that country reconcile when it has not taken action to help Guinea which has long been in crisis,” Diallo told reporters in Dakar, Senegal. “We deplore the lack of reaction from ECOWAS against President Conde’s candidacy.”
President Conde, however, insists that he is following the will of the people of Guinea by running in the October elections after voters in March approved a referendum that allowed for him to run again.
In a speech broadcast on Tuesday, Conde warned that “this election is not just an election, it’s as if we were at war”.
Meanwhile, ECOWAS has certified Guinea electoral register as of sufficient quality for October elections. The electoral commission CENI will hand over more than five million voting cards in total.
“The electoral register of Guinea, which is free of all the anomalies encountered with regard to the electoral code, is of sufficient quality for the next elections,” said General Francis Béhanzin, ECOWAS Commissioner for Peace and Security.
