Guinea: Former PM Lansana Kouyaté will not participate in the next presidential elections

04 Septembre 2020

Conakry, Guinea, September 4 (Infosplusgabon) - Former Guinean Prime Minister, Lansana Kouyaté (2007-2008), who is also leader of the Party of Hope for National Development (PEDN), has announced that he will not participate in the October 18 presidential elections in Guinea, according to a statement sent on Friday.

"For moral, ethical and political reasons," the document states, "the PEDN has decided not to take part in 'sham' poll which could result in 'an illegal mandate, one too many'."

The PEDN believes that the incumbent president, Alpha Condé, "after his two, five-year constitutional terms, has just stepped up his march towards the thorny and devastating path of all that democratic governance could ask for."

"Stability, visibility in public policy and national cohesion have just suffered another blow, certainly fatal, but not for the people of Guinea," the PEDN said.

The former Prime Minister, who in 2010 aligned with Alpha Condé in the second round against Mamadou Cellou Dalein Diallo, indicates that his party strongly condemns Conde's move.

He insists that his party, which has consulted all its federations, refuses to endorse the "the illegal candidacy" of president Conde and calls on the people of Guinea to mobilize and resolve the issue in order to prevent the country from further unfortunate bloodletting.

However, president Conde, who submitted his candidacy to the Constitutional Court on Thursday, paid "a vibrant tribute" to the women who, he said, contributed 800 million Guinean francs, or the equivalent of 50 million CFA francs, to pay the deposit set by the Independent National Electoral Commission (CENI) in his favour.

He promised that he would do more for women and young people if he is re-elected.

The National Front for the Defense of the Constitution (FND), a protest structure which, since last October, has been organizing street demonstrations to denounce the regime's attempt to allow Conde to run for "a third term", threatened to exclude from its ranks the parties which will participate in the presidential elections.

Already, two former ministers under the Condé, members of the protest structure, have already applied and stressed that nothing stands in the way of their candidacies.

For his part, the former prime ministers, Mamadou Cellou Dalein Diallo and Sidya Touré, also members of the FNDC, have not yet submitted their candidacy files, the deadline of which closes next Tuesday.

Aged 82, president Conde and his supporters rely on the new Constitution, adopted on March 22, to say that Conde has a right to seek a new mandate beyond his two successive five-year terms. This development is denounced and boycotted by the majority of the opposition parties.

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