Fears of an electoral dispute are growing in Guinea, one day after a tense presidential vote, as the opposition has said it will publish its own vote results, ignoring the official tally.
Guineans voted Sunday in a poll in which incumbent President Alpha Conde is seeking a third term, following months of protests against the move during which security forces killed dozens of people.
Polling day in the poor West African nation was calm, despite fears of violence after recent clashes between supporters of 82-year-old Conde and his main rival Cellou Dalein Diallo, 68.
Twelve candidates are contesting the presidency, including the frontrunners Conde and Diallo.
But fresh tensions have arisen over an apparent warning from Diallo, who leads the opposition UFDG party, that his activists will declare the outcome of the election themselves.
“Polling stations display the results by polling station. From the moment they are displayed, it is a public result. So the UFDG will publish the results,” said Ousmane Gaoual Diallo, a UFDG party cadre.
Opposition members are deeply suspicious of the fairness of Sunday’s poll, as well as the independence of Guinea’s electoral authority.
Diallo told reporters on Sunday that his rival may “cheat” — which prompted Guinea’s security minister to fire back that he should “return to his senses”.
By Sunday evening, partial results began to filter online and Diallo supporters rallied in some suburbs of the capital Conakry to celebrate his purported victory.
On Monday, Guinea’s government said in a statement that “this strategy of forced, premature and unjustified celebration was meticulously planned.”
The move is “clearly intended to create chaos and to call into question the real results that will come out of the ballot box,” the government said.
