CONAKRY, Guinea — Polls opened in Guinea on Sunday for a referendum that would permit the chief of the nation’s junta to run for the presidency and is being intently watched within the coup-battered area.
Residents of this coastal West African nation are casting their ballots in favor or towards a brand new draft structure, the important thing step within the nation’s transition from army rule to civilian rule. Elections are anticipated to comply with in December.
Guinea is one in every of a rising variety of West African international locations, together with Mali, Niger and Burkina Faso, the place the army has taken energy and delayed a return to civilian rule. Critics say Sunday’s referendum is a method for Gen. Mamadi Doumbouya, who ousted President Alpha Conde in 2021, to hunt the presidency and legitimize his army rule.
There are 6.7 million eligible voters and the referendum wants a voter turnout of at the very least 50% to cross.
Polls opened at 7 a.m. native time and are anticipated to shut at 6 p.m.
Within the final days of the marketing campaign, Conakry, Guinea’s capital, was buzzing with exercise. There have been Quran readings, reggae concert events and prayers held in help of Doumbouya. Supporters carrying T-shirts and boubous — conventional West African flowing clothes — printed with Doumbouya’s face, gathered at neighborhood rallies. Just one factor was lacking: the opposition.
Campaigning was banned on Friday and Saturday however the referendum remained omnipresent. Private and non-private buildings in Conakry remained plastered with “Sure” marketing campaign billboards calling for approval of the referendum. At a live performance held Friday evening in one in every of Conakry’s bars, band members sang a tune about Doumbouya, repeatedly chanting “Oui! Oui! Oui!,” or “Sure! Sure! Sure!” in French, the nation’s official language.
The army regime silenced critics and final yr dissolved greater than 50 political events in a transfer it claimed was to “clear up the political chessboard.” Weeks earlier than the referendum, it suspended the three foremost opposition events, making it unattainable for them to arrange rallies and communicate to the inhabitants.
Greater than half of Guinea’s inhabitants can’t learn or write, which implies they solely get details about the brand new structure from the “sure” camp, mentioned Rafiou Sow, president of the opposition Renewal and Progress Get together, one of many suspended political entities, who referred to as for the boycott of the referendum.
“Our activists and supporters don’t have any information of this structure. The second we had been excluded, they had been excluded,” he mentioned. “We, who had been supposed to assist Guineans perceive what’s written in it, we’re forbidden even to talk.”
Doumbouya took energy by drive 4 years in the past, saying he acted to stop the nation from slipping into chaos and chastising the earlier authorities for damaged guarantees. Regardless of wealthy pure assets, over half of Guinea’s inhabitants of 15 million individuals is experiencing “unprecedented ranges of poverty and meals insecurity,” in keeping with the World Meals Program.
Doumbouya initially mentioned he wouldn’t run for the presidency. However the draft structure permits junta members to run for workplace and extends the presidential mandate from 5 to seven years, renewable twice.
Though Doumbouya has not spoken publicly about whether or not he would run in December’s election, he stays the primary determine of the referendum marketing campaign.
Tiguidanké Guirassy, a 20-year-old college graduate who attended a rally on Thursday night in central Conakry, mentioned she was “impressed” by Doumbouya to vote in favor of the structure.
“In my neighborhood, we didn’t have roads,” she mentioned. “Now, he took care of that, we’ve roads. He has made quite a lot of progress for Guinea and I hope he’ll proceed on this path.”
If adopted, the structure would introduce quite a lot of adjustments, together with creating the Senate and permitting impartial candidates to face within the election. Fanta Conte, a member of Guinea’s Nationwide Transition Council, mentioned the referendum was not about Doumbouya, however concerning the new structure, which might give extra energy to the legislative department of presidency.
Analysts mentioned that whereas the course of the brand new structure was good, the adjustments weren’t essential.
“We have at all times had constitutions that enshrined stability of powers and democratic and even trendy establishments,” mentioned Kabinet Fofana, head of the Conakry-based Guinean Affiliation of Political Sciences. “However the issue will not be the structure — it’s somewhat respect (for it), its applicability, and rule of legislation.”
Critics denounced the referendum as an influence seize.
Since coming to energy, the army junta has been tightening its grip on impartial media and the opposition, in keeping with rights organizations. Human Rights Watch accused the army regime of disappearing its opponents and silencing essential media voices. Reporters With out Borders mentioned that journalists have confronted assaults and arrests, with data websites and radio stations interrupted or suspended.
However many Guineans, disillusioned with earlier regimes, have been seduced by Doumbouya’s imaginative and prescient of a affluent, developed Guinea, which might lastly profit all.
“We’ve seen many regimes right here, however for the reason that arrival of (Doumbouya) there was change,” mentioned Ben Daouda Sylla, a 30-year-old lawyer. “He’s doing every thing potential to make sure that Guinea strikes ahead.”
