Violence erupts after opposition candidate Condé wins Guinea's first free presidential election

Violence erupts after opposition candidate Condé wins Guinea's first free presidential election

2010-11-17 03:17:26 GMT+7 (ICT)

CONARKY, GUINEA (BNO NEWS) -- Violence on Tuesday erupted in Guinea after the electoral commission announced that opposition candidate Alpha Condé won the first free presidential elections in the West Africa country.

Condé received 52.5 percent of the votes while his challenger, former Prime Minister Cellou Diallo, obtained 47.5 percent. This numbers represent that Condé received about 1.47 million votes while Diallo got 1.3 million votes.

The results were announced on Monday night, but shortly after, supporters of Diallo went to the streets to protest against the results which Diallo said were marred with a massive voting fraud and accused Guinea police forces of savage brutality.

During Monday and Tuesday riots, two individuals were killed and dozens more were injured. Guinean forces have been accused of using excessive force against Diallo's supporters and members of his Fulani ethnic group.

The former Prime Minister appealed the decision to the Supreme Court which has to confirm the election results. Provisional results initially indicated that Diallo was on the lead with a narrow difference. However, after all votes were counted, Condé finished ahead of Diallo.

Diallo's supporters were angry with the turn of events while the long-time opposition candidate’s followers celebrated his win. On Sunday, Diallo announced that his party will not participate in the presidential vote due to evidence of fraud.

Analysts and observers have expressed concern as pre-election violence killed at least 3 people and displaced around 2,800 ethnic Peul. Many of them were threatened with death and forced to leave before the elections were carried out.

A number of Guineans voted along ethnic and regional lines, with the ethnic Peul, also known as Fulani, supporting the Peul candidate, Diallo, and the Malinke strongly favoring heir candidate, Alpha Condé.

The first round was seen as Guinea's first democratic vote since independence in 1958, raising hopes of an end to military and authoritarian rule in the mineral-rich country that was established after the death of long-time leader Lansana Conte in December 2008.

-- © BNO News All rights reserved 2010-11-17