CONAKRY: Guineans vote in a presidential election Sunday with victory all but assured for Mamady Doumbouya, a general who led the junta that seized power in the west African country four years ago.
By running, the strongman is reneging on a pledge not to stand for office and to hand the country back to civilian rule by the end of 2024.
Instead, he has sought to silence dissent. All the main opposition leaders have been barred from standing in the election.
UN human rights chief Volker Turk said Friday the campaign had been “marked by intimidation of opposition actors, apparently politically-motivated enforced disappearances, and constraints on media freedom.”
Guinea’s opposition has called for a boycott of the vote, in a country rich in minerals but where 52 percent of the population lives in poverty, according to World Bank figures.
