Anti-Conde Movement Sets Protests In Guinea For Late September

Conakry, Sept 16 (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 17th Sep, 2020 ) :A movement opposing Guinean President Alpha Conde's controversial bid for a third term in elections next month announced Wednesday that it would stage a new round of protests from late September.

"Our citizens' movement calls on the population of Conakry and the surrounding area to join a series of peaceful marches, starting on Tuesday September 29, 2020, to demand Mr. Alpha Conde's departure," said one of its leaders, Abdourahmane Sanoh.

"The people of Guinea are urged to mobilise massively, in the greatest civic responsibility... to block" Conde, he said.

He described the 82-year-old president as a "dictator... whose sole ambition today is to stay in power for the rest of his life." Deadly clashes erupted in the West African state last October, claiming several dozen lives, over Conde's plans.

He is contesting the October 18 polls despite accusations of sidestepping limits on presidential terms by pushing through changes to the constitution.

Guinea is one of Africa's most volatile countries, enjoying little stability between coups since independence from France in 1958.

Conde is a former opposition figure who was jailed under previous regimes.

He became the country's first democratically elected president in 2010 and was re-elected for a second time in 2015.

But critics say he has become increasingly authoritarian, resorting to crackdowns to quell dissent and pushing through changes to the constitution, validated in a referendum, that he argues has reset the two-term counter to zero.

Sanoh, whose statement was issued in the name of an anti-Conde coalition called the National Front for the Defence of the Constitution (FNDC), said a third term would be "illegal and illegitimate".

Twelve candidates have been authorised to take part in the elections.

The announcement of the protests came just hours after Conde declared that anti-coronavirus measures imposed in March, which include restrictions on public gatherings, would be extended for another month.