Guinea: OIF suspends participation in electoral process

Text by: RFI Follow

In Guinea, a few days before the constitutional referendum and legislative elections on March 1, the International Organization of La Francophonie (OIF) decided to suspend its participation in the electoral process in this country. This is indicated in a press release published on Monday, February 24, on the website of the international organization.

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With our correspondents in Conakry , Mouctar Bah and Carol Valade

The OIF justifies this withdrawal by the differences surrounding the electoral register. Confirming the doubts of the opposition, the OIF considers problematic more than two million voters appearing on the electoral lists. The International Organization of La Francophonie (OIF) has therefore indicated that it will be difficult for it to continue its assistance mission, just six days before the elections.

Opposition to the Guinean president points to a disproportionate number of voters in relation to the country's demography, and the registration, according to her, of minors on the electoral lists.

In 2018, the OIF conducted, with the UN and the European Union, an audit of the electoral roll dating from 2015. The audit counted 2.49 million voters whose presence on the lists was " problematic ", recalls the OIF, responsible for the implementation of the recommendations of this audit, in a press release published this Monday, February 24, and which made the headlines of the Guinean press.

It turns out that these voters are still in the current database, notes the OIF. Among them are deceased voters or duplicates, says the organization. Of these 2.49 million people, 98% " do not have documents allowing their identification, " added the International Organization of La Francophonie.

Western chancelleries had already said that they would not validate the electoral process, a process that a diplomat, on condition of anonymity, does not hesitate to describe as " farce ".

The FNDC claims victory. " This proves that we were right, " says Cellou Dalein Diallo. While on the side of the RPG, the ruling party, we denounce an “ incoherent decision” but which “will not hinder the progress of the process ”.

► Read also: "Guinea: the tension and the concern are mounting with the approach of the March 1 election"

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