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Guinea’s Conde Postpones Vote Over International Concerns

Guinea’s Conde Postpones Vote Over International Concerns

(Bloomberg) -- Guinean President Alpha Conde postponed Sunday’s referendum on a new constitution and parliamentary elections for two weeks, after international observers raised concerns about security and whether the vote would be credible.

“It was through national and sub-regional responsibility that we accepted a slight postponement of the vote,” Conde said in a statement on state-owned Radio Television Guinéenne, after observers from the African Union and the West African regional economic bloc, Ecowas, called off observer missions to Guinea.

The West African country was due to vote on a new constitution Sunday that would extend presidential mandates from five to six years, with a two-term limit.

It’s widely believed that Conde, 81, who’s supposed to step down in December after serving two five-year terms, will use the new charter to seek re-election later this year.

“It is neither a capitulation nor a step back,” Conde said, calling on his supporters and Guineans to accept the decision. “This is out of fidelity to the Guinea of yesterday, today and tomorrow,” he said.

The delay would allow authorities to look into irregularities in the electoral roll including over 2.4 million voters whose situation was “unclear.”

The electoral commission will call on the Constitutional Court to set a new date within two weeks, Conde said in a letter addressed to Niger’s President Mahamadou Issoufou, the acting head of the Economic Community of West African States, that was read on state television.

On Thursday, the bloc canceled a heads-of-state mission led by Issoufou after Conde declined to receive Nigeria’s President Muhammadu Buhari and Ghana’s President Nana Akufo-Addo. This led the African Union to call off an election observer mission while also expressing concerns over discrepancies in the electoral roll.

Conde, first elected in 2010, is barred from running in elections later this year after having served the constitutional two terms, but his supporters say a new constitution would allow him to run again.

Conde has so far refused to say whether he would stand, saying the ruling party will choose a candidate. He has, however, openly backed the referendum saying a new constitution is necessary because the previous charter drawn up under a military junta has flaws and is outdated.

--With assistance from Katarina Hoije.

To contact the reporter on this story: Ougna Camara in Conakry at ocamara@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Shamim Adam at sadam2@bloomberg.net, Adam Haigh, James Ludden

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