Guinea: The main challenges of the new president

This policy brief identifies five main areas to which the president should give priority.

On 27 June 2010, Guineans went to the polls to elect one of 24 aspirants to the presidency. The Guinean Constitution (Article 32) requires a candidate to have gained an absolute majority in order to be elected president. None of the aspirants garnered the required percentage of votes in the first round. Thus, a run-off poll was organised between the former Prime Minister, Cellou Dalein Diallo, and the long-time opposition leader, Alpha Condé, the two leading candidates in the first round. Diallo, representing the Union of Democratic Forces of Guinea (UFDG) party, had garnered 43.69 per cent of the votes and was supported in the run-off poll by a coalition called ‘Cellou Dalein for President’ (Alliance Cellou Dalein Président). Condé, the candidate of the Rally of the Guinean People (RPG) party, had come second with 18.25 per cent of the votes and was supported in the second round by the ‘Rainbow Alliance’ (Alliance arc-en-ciel).

After a few postponements, the run-off poll was finally held on 7November 2010. On 15 November the National Independent Electoral Commission (CENI) declared Condé the winner with 52.52 per cent of the votes against 47.48 per cent for his rival, who contested the results in the country’s Supreme Court. Following a careful examination of these complaints, the Supreme Court on 2 December confirmed Condé’s victory and Diallo accepted its ruling. The various electoral observer missions deemed the poll to have been generally transparent and credible.

The new president is taking over a ruined economy, a country with widespread poverty, general insecurity and a high unemployment rate. Moreover, the electoral campaign during the second round, as well as the announcement of the provisional results, saw many waves of violence taking place between supporters of the two candidates. More worrying is that some of the violence took on ethno-political dimensions, thereby compromising national cohesion and inter-community harmony in the country.

The aim of this policy brief is to draw attention to some of the main challenges that the newly elected president of Guinea will face, and to formulate policy recommendations in view of addressing these challenges. For the first time since it regained its independence in 1958, Guinea has a president who has been democratically elected without any undue advantage of incumbency. Given the many challenges facing the country, it is evident that the new president does not come with a magical wand capable of solving all the problems overnight. Nonetheless, he has the onerous task of meeting at least some of the pressing popular expectations of Guineans.

Based on this, the policy brief identifies five main areas to which the president should give priority, namely: (i) national reconciliation; (ii) inclusive governance, in the sense that the political opposition is regarded as a partner rather than an adversary; (iii) the fight against impunity and the establishment of the rule of law; (iv) reform of the security sector; and (v) improvement of the living conditions of the masses. This list is evidently not exhaustive given that every sector deserves attention in Guinea, owing to the decay of State institutions.

About the authors:

Dr Issaka K. Souaré is Senior Researcher in the African Conflict Prevention Programme at the Pretoria office ISS.

Mr Alimou Diallo is the Regional Programmes Coordinator, Networks and Development at the Accra office of the West African Network for Peacebuilding (WANEP).