President Alpha Conde’s ruling party won a significant majority in Guinea’s first local elections since 2005, near-complete results showed on Wednesday, although the main opposition party took the capital, Conakry.
The election held on February 4 was the first of its kind since the end of military dictatorship, and followed eight years of delays blamed on lack of funds, political infighting and the 2013-16 Ebola crisis.
Conde’s Rally for the Guinean People (RPG) took 1.35 million votes, electing 3 284 councillors.
Former prime minister Cellou Dalein Diallo’s Union of Democratic Forces of Guinea (UFDG) won 893 000 votes to gain 2 156 councillors.
A second opposition party, the Union of Republican Forces (UFR), won 190 000 votes for 447 councillors, all according to figures released by the National Independent Electoral Commission (CENI).
In Guinea, coalitions are common at the council level, meaning overall control of the country’s 342 “communes,” or districts, will not be known until deals are struck.
The results from a small number of localities are still expected following a two-week delay in publishing the final figures.
Although Conde’s RPG dominated nationwide, his overall loss in the capital is a blow given that almost a quarter of the population live in Conakry.
Council executives were controversially replaced when their mandate ran out in 2010 with appointees named by Conde, contributing to anger over eight years of delays in holding the vote.
Ten people have been killed in post-electoral violence since the election, where accusations of fraud translated into arson and rioting on the streets by disgruntled opposition supporters.
