The Cédéao asked the junta to organize elections without delay in order to return power to civilians. The soldiers overthrew President Alpha Condé in September 2021.
Le Monde with AFP
It is a camouflet for the neighbors of Guinea. The leader of the military junta in Conakry announced, Saturday April 30, having opted for a transition period “39 months” before returning power to civilians, thus defying the regional partners of the country who require a much shorter period. This reports possible elections to 2025.
“Of all the consultations initiated at all levels (…), a median proposal of a consensual duration of the transition of 39 months,” said Colonel Mamady Doumbouya said in a television address.
The officer, who spilled President Alpha Condé in September and had the head of state proclaimed since then, made these remarks after the closure on Friday of two contested political consultations – a so -called conference Reconciliation and “an inclusive consultation framework” – both shunned by a large number of political parties.
“The CNRD [National Committee of Rally and Development, the Directory body of the junta] and the government in turn will submit to the CNT [National Transitional Council], which takes the place of parliament, this proposal which is consecutive to large and patient consultations, “said Colonel-President.
At the end of March, impatient before their manifest refusal to announce a date for elections intended to render power to civilians, the Economic Community of West African States (Cédéao) had summoned the authorities of Conakry to present to him “no later than April 25” an acceptable “transitional calendar, under penalty of an extension of the economic sanctions decided against the country after the coup.
But the junta let the deadline pass and asked to “have more time compared to the deadline of April 25”, in order to “allow the continuation of consultations”, according to a statement from the Cédéao published on Wednesday.
Violent attack on the Cédéao
In September, after the putsch in Conakry, the heads of state of the Cédéao had “insisted that the transition was very short”, and that elections were organized within a period not exceeding “six months”.
By closing the “inclusive consultation framework”, the Minister of Territory Administration and Decentralization, Mory Condé, said on Friday that the “all of the actors” who agreed to participate had “proposed durations ranging from 18 to 52 months “for the transition, without specifying from what date.
As in Mali or Burkina Faso, two other countries in the region where the military has taken power, the Guinean junta seems to make little case of the requirements of the Cédéao.
Tuesday, in the aftermath of the ultimatum’s expiration of the regional organization, the government spokesman set up by the junta, Ousmane Gaoual Diallo, had engaged in a violent attack on the Cédéao.
“We have not transmitted a document [on the calendar of the transition to the Cédéao] and we have been clear on this since the beginning that the Guinean government has not act under constraints or under the diktat of which Let it be, “he said, not excluding that Guinea withdraw from the Cédéao.
The Cédéao “must make his own self-criticism,” he added, accusing the West African organization of having been “distant compared to the cries of the Guinean populations” during the murderous repression of the dispute that marked the last years of power of Mr. Condé.
In a press release published on Saturday before the announcement of Colonel Doumbouya over the duration of the transition, the National Front for the Defense of the Constitution (FNDC), deplored “that the facts and actions of the CNRD resemble more day more to Those of the fallen regime of Alpha Condé “and pleaded for a” rapid return to normal constitutional order “.