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CONAKRY: Guinea’s
Constitutional Court on Saturday formally confirmed President Alpha Condé’s
landslide re-election victory, dismissing opposition claims of vote rigging and
fraud in the contested October 11 polls.
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Reading the final
results, court president Kelefa Sall said Condé took 57.84 percent of the vote
in the first round, or 2,284,827 of ballots counted, in line with the results
announced earlier this month by the Independent National Electoral Commission
(CENI). Condé
is therefore “declared president of the republic with a mandate that runs from
December 21, 2015 to December 21, 2020,” Sall said in a public address in the
capital Conakry.
Appeals
lodged by three of the seven candidates who ran against Condé that had called
for the vote to be annulled were rejected by the court, with Sall saying their
complaints either lacked proof or had no bearing on the results.
Condé’s
main rival, opposition leader and former premier Cellou Dalein Diallo came
second in the election with 31.45 percent.
AFP report continues:
He
has refused to recognize the outcome of what he labelled an “illegal” vote
tainted by mismanagement and fraud. He was not however among those who appealed
to the court to overturn the result, questioning the body’s independence.
The
opposition has notably criticized the very high turnout in known pro-Condé
strongholds and complained of an unfair geographical spread of voter cards, an
allegation CENI has denied.
African
and European Union observers also noted organizational problems but commended
the high turnout and the peaceful nature of the polling day.
At
least 13 people were killed in a week of violence in Guinea before and after
the presidential election, with the security forces responsible for the deaths
of unarmed civilians, Amnesty International said last week.
The
election was only the second democratic presidential poll since Guinea gained
independence from France in 1958.
The
west African nation’s first democratic election in 2010 went to a second round
between Condé and Diallo, which Condé narrowly won.
-AFP
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