BREAKING NEWS. Cellou Dalein Diallo will be a candidate in the election of October 18 while continuing to support the peaceful demonstrations against the third mandate of Alpha Condé.
“I’m running for the presidential election to lose Alpha Conde in the ballot box. The party has decided to participate in this election and has appointed me to represent it,” said in Conakry Cellou Dalein Diallo, head of the Union of Democratic Forces of Guinea (UFDG), quoted by AFP. The UFDG “felt it was good that in addition to the peaceful demonstrations against Alpha Condé’s third term, to also fight at the ballot box against this third term. We can do both at the same time,” said Cellou Dalein Diallo, 66, an unfortunate candidate in the 2010 and 2015 presidential elections. He was speaking shortly before the start of his party’s convention to designate him as its representative in the October 18 presidential election.
The announcement of his candidacy, in its form and substance, is a response to the confirmation of that of the current president of Guinea, Alpha Conde, 82 years old, former historical opponent and first democratically elected president of the country in 2010. Alpha Condé, who was re-elected in 2015, put a definitive end on September 2 to months of ambiguity by confirming that he was the candidate of the Rally for the People of Guinea (RPG) for a third term, despite a challenge that cost the lives of dozens of civilians.
An election in which the main candidates are known…
Cellou Dalein Diallo is the eighth candidate declared for the presidential election. Four candidates, including Alpha Condé, have already officially submitted their files. Among these candidates are the economist and former minister Ousmane Kaba (Party of Democrats for Hope), excluded in 2016 from the party of Mr. Condé, the lawyer and former minister Abdoul Kabélé Camara (Guinean Party for Development) and the former minister and former economist at the IMF Ousmane Doré (National Movement for Development), told AFP. The deadline for filing applications to the Constitutional Court expires Tuesday at midnight. This does not exclude the continuation of the opposition of the National Front for the Defense of the Constitution (FNDC) against a third term of Alpha Condé.
… in parallel with the FNDC’s struggle against a third term of Alpha Condé.
The National Front for the Defense of the Constitution (FNDC), a collective of parties, trade unions, and members of civil society, has been campaigning since last year against the constitutional revision adopted in March after a controversial and violent referendum, which it denounced as an institutional coup d’état. The new constitution, like its predecessor, limits the number of presidential terms to two. But Condé’s supporters argue that this change in the basic law resets the count to zero.
Source: Le Point
