Junta leader declared winner of Guinea’s presidential election

Junta leader General Mamady Doumbouya was declared the winner of Guinea’s presidential election held over the weekend, according to incomplete results released late on Tuesday, the country’s first election since a 2021 coup.

Doumbouya won 86.72 per cent of the votes counted so far, according to the General Directorate of Elections. Ahead of the vote on Sunday, analysts had predicted that a weakened opposition would result in Doumbouya’s win.

The election was widely seen as a means to legitimise Doumbouya’s stay in power. It was also the culmination of a transition process that began four years ago after Doumbouya ousted president Alpha Conde. The junta leader has since clamped down on opposition and dissent, critics say, leaving him with no major opponents among the eight other candidates who were in the race.

More than 50 political parties were dissolved, and major opposition candidates were either banned from contesting on the grounds of technicalities or were in exile following the clampdown.

Lesser-known Yero Balde, a former education minister in Conde’s government, came a distant second with 6.51 per cent of the votes. The directorate said that 80.95 per cent of the registered 6.7 million voters had voted in the election.