UPDATE: Guinea Opposition Leaders Want Election Scrapped, Citing Fraud

Guinea's President Alpha Conde casts his ballot at a polling station in Conakry on October 11, 2015

All seven opposition leaders who contested Guinea's presidential election against incumbent Alpha Conde said on Monday the result should be annulled because of fraud.

Their declaration is likely to stoke tension in the West African country, which has a history of political violence, including at the 2010 election that brought Conde to power.

Conde, who rose to power in a military coup, is favoured to win a second term, although the result from Sunday's vote may be close enough to require a second round. Early results announced by radio stations so far showed Conde in the lead.

Reuters report continues:

The opposition candidates, including the main opposition leader, Cellou Dalein Diallo, told a news conference that there were numerous examples of fraud in the election.

Diallo said voters registered this year in the city of Labe in central Guinea received no voting cards and only those who voted in 2010 could cast their ballots on Sunday.

"The election was a masquerade which started yesterday and still continues today at the central (election) commission level. In these conditions, we again demand that the election be scrapped because we cannot recognize results issued through this process," Diallo said.

"We have the right to protest. We will do it. That must be clearly understood," he said, in a declaration that appeared to stop short of calling his supporters into the streets.

Two people were killed and at least 33 were wounded in Guinea on Friday in clashes between Conde and Diallo's supporters.

In another sign of opposition discontent, former Prime Minister Sidya Toure, one of the election's leading candidates, told private radio late on Monday that he was withdrawing any delegates he had won in the vote from the electoral process.

U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon appealed in a statement for calm and urged all sides to refrain from making statements that could lead to violence.

Conde's director of communication, Moustapha Naite, said the electoral commission should do its work.

"If the opposition parties have complaints, their duty is to legal means and inform the constitutional court," Naite said, referring to the country's highest electoral authority.

The International Organization of the Francophonie, whose experts have been assisting the electoral commission since March, praised Sunday's vote but urged caution.

"What we saw yesterday was impressive. People turned out en masse in calm and serenity," Francophonie chief of mission Mohamed Salia Sokona told Reuters.

"It is one thing to go to the polls. Results are something else. We hope that this conduct prevails and that Guineans may show a sense of responsibility and democracy," he said.

Military officers seized power in a 2008 coup following the death of longtime ruler Lansana Conte. The next year, security forces killed more than 150 pro-democracy protesters who had rallied at a stadium in the capital and raped dozens of women.

Conde was elected in 2010 in Guinea's first democratic handover of power since independence from France in 1958.

Electoral officials sort out ballot papers at the end of presidential elections in Conakry, Guinea, Sunday, Oct. 11, 2015. Guinea's president and main opposition candidate called for calm Sunday when they voted in the country's presidential election, after days of electoral clashes. (AP Photo/Youssouf Bah)

The Philipines Star reports that Guinea's opposition candidates said yesterday they will not recognize provisional results for the country's presidential election, citing fraud, a move the government criticized as systematic.

"The Guinean opposition will not recognize the outcome of the poll. We call for outright cancellation of this election," main opposition candidate Cellou Dalein Diallo said at a press conference alongside six other candidates who are running against President Alpha Conde.

Diallo said there were flagrant violations of the laws. He said ballot boxes were stuffed and voters intimidated.

Another opposition candidate Lansana Kouyate said some of his supporters were prevented from voting.

Candidate Faya Millimono accused ministers of distributing money to voters, calling it a setback to democracy.

"This manner of challenge has become systematic," the government said in a statement, saying the independent electoral commission regulates the process and the vote was overseen by thousands of international observers.

"The aim of the opposition is clear: To discredit the election," it said.

The government said few of the opposition are concerned with the actual results. "Some want to save face, others are struggling to stay ahead in their party and finally there are those who wish to settle personal scores," it said.

The opposition last week called for the polls to be postponed, but the electoral commission said everything was in order.

Some polling stations remained open late, after voting materials arrived late or ran out. Others said voting ran smoothly.

Provisional results are expected from one to three days after the polls closed Sunday evening.

Many hope that political violence that killed at least three in the run-up to this election, and that marred the first democratic election in 2010, does not resurface.
President Conde is favored to win, but it is likely he will face a second round of voting against Diallo.