Presidential election in Guinea: precarious calm the day after the announcement of the results

A policeman in a street in Conakry after clashes with demonstrators on October 24, 2020. RFI / Carol Valade

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4 min

It is a precarious calm which reigns in Guinea the day after the proclamation by the Ceni of the provisional results of the presidential election.

The outgoing president, Alpha Condé was re-elected with more than 59% of the votes.

Cellou Dalein Diallo, the leader and candidate of the UFDG, credited by the Ceni with 33.5% of the vote denounced "an electoral hold-up".

He intends to challenge them by seeing the courts but also in the street.

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With our correspondents in Conakry,

After the new tensions and violence which took place on Saturday in the country, in the upper suburbs of Conakry “ 

.

», Testifies a resident of Nongo.

Not far away, in the Cosa district, a precarious calm reigns.

Shooting, again, but no clashes reported.

Defense and security forces are present in numbers.

Many shops and markets are closed, such as on the side of Lambanyi where shops were attacked and clashes broke out between communities which have reportedly left several people injured by stabbing.

Same scenario in Dar es Salaam where residents accuse the police of taking sides.

Calm is also precarious in the region of Upper Guinea, the scene of violence in recent days.

In Nzérékoré, in the south of the country, a few sporadic gatherings were quickly dispersed by the defense and security forces.

It is difficult to obtain a reliable assessment of this post-electoral violence.

The two camps accuse each other of being at the origin.

One thing is certain, there are children among the victims.

Unicef ​​in Guinea says it is " 

 " by the violence and urges all parties to " 

 ".

Antonio Guterres, Secretary General of the UN on Saturday launched an appeal for a peaceful solution through dialogue on this new electoral dispute in Guinea.

Emissaries from the UN, the African Union and the ECOWAS are also announced in Conakry for a joint preventive diplomacy mission.

Heavily disrupted social networks and internet

The Internet and social networks have been severely disrupted in recent days in Guinea.

The Post and Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (ARPT) admits and justifies the blocking of certain social networks.

And it is on the social network Twitter precisely that the deputy director general of the ARTP has given elements of explanation.

“ 

 ”wrote Mami Diaby, the head of the ARPT.

For his part, Alpha Diallo, president of the association of bloggers of Guinea, (Ablogui) says he is “ 

 ” by this justification which he considers “

 ”.

For him, the deputy director general of the ARPT recognizes " 

 ".

He asks on what legal provisions this restriction is based.

For the president of Ablogui, the operator Orange Guinea is not responsible for the disturbances.

After tests, it was still impossible to connect to the internet on mobile via this Orange Guinea network on Sunday at the beginning of the afternoon.

The disturbances began on Thursday evening and yesterday Saturday, when the overall provisional results were announced by the Electoral Commission.

It was then that the network seems to have also deteriorated on other operators such as MTN, which has since been accessible again.

However, international calls to Guinea via Orange are working again.

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• Guinea

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Guinea: an international diplomatic mission to defuse tensions

Presidential in Guinea: the Ceni declares Alpha Condé elected in the first round