Guinea Opposition Rejects Junta's Draft Constitution

Conakry, (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 31st Jul, 2024) Guinea's opposition rejected on Tuesday a draft constitution presented a day earlier by the ruling junta, saying it would allow military leaders to stand in elections and prevent a return to civilian rule.

The junta seized power in the West African country in a September 2021 coup led by Colonel Mamady Doumbouya, who has since been sworn in as president and promoted to general.

The military agreed under pressure from regional bloc ECOWAS to organise elections by the end of 2024 after a so-called transition period.

The draft constitution presented on Monday included the establishment of a new parliament with two chambers and a minimum age of 35 and a maximum age of 80 for candidates standing in elections.

The Living Forces of Guinea (FVG), an alliance of political parties, trade unions and civil society groups, said they "firmly opposed" the draft constitution, adding that it "opens up the possibility for transition leaders to stand in national and local elections".

The document was "in total contradiction" with the Transition Charter and the junta's oft-repeated commitments", the alliance said in a statement to AFP.

The junta is due to put the constitution to a referendum before the end of the year.

- 'Kidnapping' -

The FVG also repeated demands on Tuesday for the "immediate and unconditional" release of anti-junta activists Oumar Sylla, better known as Fonike Mengue, and Mamadou Billo Bah.

The two men "disappeared" after they were arrested on July 9, according to the National Front for the Defence of the Constitution (FNDC), a pro-democracy movement.

The group denounced the incident as a "kidnapping", saying along with rights groups including Amnesty International that they were being held incommunicado in violation of international law.

Guinean authorities denied detaining the pair.

At least seven demonstrators and two police officers were injured on Tuesday during protests calling for the release of the two men, security and medical sources told AFP.

Young protesters set up tree-trunk barricades, tipped over rubbish bins and threw stones at police officers in several neighbourhoods on Conakry's outskirts, a police source told AFP.

The police responded by tear-gassing the demonstrations.

Civil society organisations called for demonstrations -- banned by the government -- on Wednesday and Thursday.

Sylla and Bah's disappearance is the latest in a series of arrests since Doumbouya, a 44-year-old colonel who once served in France's Foreign Legion, seized power in the 2021 coup.

His military-led authorities have launched a crackdown on attempts to mobilise support for a return to civilian rule.

Many opposition leaders have been detained, brought before the courts or forced into exile.