Africa-Press – Cape verde. The electoral commission declared the leader of Guinea-Conakry’s military junta, General Mamadi Doumbouya, the winner of Sunday’s presidential election, according to incomplete results from the country’s first election since the 2021 coup.
The General Directorate of Elections (DGE) of Guinea-Conakry’s Ministry of Territorial Administration said Doumbouya obtained 86.72% of the votes counted by Tuesday night.
Before Sunday’s vote, analysts predicted that a weakened opposition, notably due to the exclusion of key rivals, would result in Doumbouya’s victory, who faced eight little-known competitors.
The opposition had called for a boycott of this vote, organized more than four years after the September 2021 coup that ousted former President Alpha Condé, who had been in power since 2010.
Yéro Baldé, former Minister of Education in the Condé government, came in a distant second place with 6.51% of the vote. The DGE (Directorate General of Electoral Affairs) guaranteed that 80.95% of the approximately 6.8 million registered voters cast their ballots on Sunday.
On Monday, the National Front for the Defense of the Constitution, a citizens’ movement, demanded the return of civilians to power, questioning the high turnout announced by the DGE and indicating that “the majority of Guineans chose to boycott the electoral farce” organized by the junta.
At the end of September, Guineans approved a new Constitution in a referendum that the opposition called for a boycott, but whose official turnout was 91%.
The new Constitution, which authorizes members of the junta to run for elections, paved the way for Doumbouya’s candidacy. It also increased the presidential term from five to seven years, renewable once.
Since independence in 1958, Guinea-Conakry has lived a complex history, marked by military and authoritarian regimes.
Although the country is rich in minerals, more than half the population lives below the poverty line, according to World Bank data for 2024.
The Simandou iron ore megaproject, with a 75% Chinese stake in the world’s largest iron ore deposit, has been the focal point of the military junta’s infrastructural and economic revitalization.
Production at the site began in November, after decades of delay. Authorities are betting that the project will create thousands of jobs and open up investments in other sectors, including education and health.
Guinea is one of several West African countries that have suffered a coup d’état or attempted coup since 2020. The military has exploited popular discontent with deteriorating security, weak economies, or contested elections to seize power.
Since November, neighboring Guinea-Bissau and Benin have also experienced coups.
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