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Guinea Presidential Campaigns Contesting Election Results

   Scott Stearns | Conakry 11 November 2010
   The  president  of the Guinean Independent Electoral Commission (CENI)
   gives   partial  results  of  the  second-round  of  the  presidential
   election, in Conakry, 10 Nov 2010

Photo: AFP

   The  president  of the Guinean Independent Electoral Commission (CENI)
   gives   partial  results  of  the  second-round  of  the  presidential
   election, in Conakry, 10 Nov 2010

   With  a  close  race in Guinea's presidential election, both campaigns
   are calling for the electoral commission to annul results they say are
   fraudulent.
   Both  campaigns  are arguing the numbers of this race, even before the
   final  returns  are  announced,  because  they  know  that  in a close
   contest, getting the electoral commission to annul results from even a
   handful  of polling stations could make the difference between winning
   and losing.
   Former  prime  minister  Cellou Diallo won most of the expatriate vote
   from  12  consulates abroad.  Long-time opposition leader Alpha Conde
   is  challenging  the  returns from Guinea-Bissau, saying the number of
   votes exceeds the number of voters registered there.
   Mr.  Diallo's campaign wants the electoral commission to annul returns
   from more than 100 polling stations for a variety of alleged offenses.
   In  the Ratoma district, for example, the Diallo campaign says an army
   colonel was paying people to vote for Mr. Conde.
   The  biggest  dispute centers on voting in Siguiri and Kouroussa where
   thousands  of  members  of  Mr. Diallo's ethnic group were driven from
   their homes in pre-election violence.
   Foday  Fofana,  a  spokesman for the Diallo campaign, says everyone in
   Guinea  knows  that  Diallo supporters were forced to leave the area.Â
   He says the Diallo campaign was only able to post representatives at a
   fraction  of the polling stations.  And in some of those, he says the
   number of people who voted exceeded the number of voters registered.
   Francois Lounceny Fall, a spokesman for the Conde campaign, says it is
   unfortunate that the Diallo campaign continues talking about annulling
   the  vote  in  Siguiri  and Kouroussa.  Fall says the Diallo campaign
   agreed to post representatives at all polling stations there to ensure
   the vote was fair.  He says there is no reason to annul those returns
   because   electoral   commission   president  Siakai  Toumany  Sangare
   guaranteed  the  ability  of  all  displaced people to vote by opening
   special polling stations for them.
   In  districts  representing  nearly  40 percent of Guinea's registered
   voters,  Mr.  Diallo leads Mr. Conde by more than 230,000 votes.  But
   most  of those returns are from areas where Mr. Diallo was expected to
   do  well.  And many of the results still to come are from areas where
   Mr. Conde is thought to have wide-spread support. Â

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