Guinea police clash with protesters over overdue elections
The home of Guinea President Alpha Conde, whose election in late 2010 ended decades of dictatorship and military rule, was attacked by armed assailants last July.
Guinea police have used guns, tear gas and truncheons to disperse protesters angry at the government’s handling of upcoming parliamentary elections.
Thousands of opposition supporters took the streets in the capital city of Conakry on Thursday, with some demonstrators throwing stones at security forces and politicians outside the ruling party headquarters.
Elections were supposed to be held within six months of President Alpha Conde’s inauguration in late 2010. Conde postponed them again in April, saying “technical problems” with the country’s voter registration system needed to be resolved, the BBC reports.
The opposition accuse him of trying to rig the polls and claim the coup-plagued West African country’s independent electoral commission is corrupt and needs to be overhauled. The last legislative elections in Guinea were held in June 2002, and a transitional council has acted as a parliament since 2010, during the country’s transition from military to civilian rule.
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According to Reuters, clashes broke out between the protesters and police on Thursday after security forces fired tear gas into the crowd, before charging the demonstrators and injuring at least two people with live ammunition rounds.
Thursday’s demonstrations comes just weeks after Guinea police fired tear gas at about 200 women from several opposition parties protesting in the capital over the election delay, and left about 20 women injured after kicking and hitting them to break up the rally, the Agence France Presse reported.
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