It was the scenario feared by many Guineans, that of post-election violence.

Several people were killed in clashes between opposition supporters and the police, Wednesday, October 21 in Conakry, three days after a presidential election organized after several months of deadly protest against a third term of President Alpha Condé, 82 years old.

"At least three people were killed, which I saw with my own eyes between Lambanyi and Sonfonia", two neighborhoods in the northern suburbs of the capital, "about ten others were injured", told the AFP adjutant Mamadou Kéganan Doumbouya.

According to Hadjiratou Barry, a resident of the Bailobaya neighborhood, her brother was "killed by the police who shot him while he was trying to flee".

A doctor who requested anonymity assured to have received "two bodies and nine injured" in a clinic.

For their part, the Guinean authorities evoke a death toll of ten, including two police officers, during this post-election violence.

According to Cellou Dalein Diallo's party, the scenes of joy that followed his declaration of victory on Monday had resulted in violence that left four dead in his ranks.

Slingshots and tear gas

Since early morning Wednesday, thick black smoke had billed from several crossroads on the route Le Prince, which crosses opposition strongholds on the outskirts of the capital, where barricades have been placed on the road and set alight .

In one of these working-class neighborhoods, Wanindara, the security forces were struggling to contain dozens of young people coming out of the alleys to gather on the main road, throwing stones at the police who were responding with tear gas, stones and fronds.

Gunshots continued to be heard in the Hamdallaye Rond-Point district in the early afternoon, according to a resident contacted by AFP.

Many witnesses reported hearing gunshots and others claimed that there were other victims, but this information could not be verified immediately from an independent source.

Clashes also erupted Wednesday in Mamou and Labé, in the center of the country, according to security and diplomatic sources in Guinea.

Surrounded home

Early Tuesday evening, Cellou Dalein Diallo's home was surrounded by around 25 gendarmes and police, equipped with helmets and shields and supported by two riot trucks, an AFP journalist noted.

I am stranded at home: my home is surrounded by the police and the gendarmerie who prohibit all entry and exit.

pic.twitter.com/pphBF8Rdqw

- Cellou Dalein Diallo (@Cellou_UFDG) October 20, 2020

"Unable to face the truth of the ballot box, the anti-democratic regime of Alpha Condé is trying to impose itself by force. It is time for Guinea to turn the page of this liberticidal and fratricidal regime", wrote on Twitter Cellou Dalein Diallo.

Outgoing President Alpha Condé, who is running for a controversial third term at 82, for his part launched on social networks a "call for calm and serenity, pending the outcome of the electoral process underway in [the] country ".

I reiterate my appeal, to all, for calm and serenity, while awaiting the outcome of the electoral process underway in our country.

Of course there will be a winner, but that does not mean that democracy will be threatened or that social peace becomes impossible.

(...) pic.twitter.com/Cz2LTCmXq7

- Alpha CONDÉ (@alphacondepresi) October 21, 2020

"There will be a winner"

The national electoral commission announced on Tuesday evening the first results of Sunday's poll for four of the country's 38 constituencies, including three in Conakry and its outskirts. 

Alpha Condé largely wins in the four constituencies over his main rival Cellou Dalein Diallo, 68, and exceeds 50% in the first round in three of them, according to these results, which do not allow "to extrapolate" a national result, according to an official of the electoral commission.

Cellou Dalein Diallo's camp accused that of the Head of State of "doing everything possible to modify the results of the polls in his favor".

"Of course there will be a winner, but that does not mean that democracy will be threatened or that social peace becomes impossible. If the victory comes back to me, I remain open to dialogue and available to work with all Guineans, "Alpha Condé assured Wednesday, saying" comforted "by the first published results.

With AFP

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