Guinea electoral board releases partial vote result

The electoral commission in Guinea on Friday released partial results of local elections which have been marred by accusations of vote rigging and violence.

Very little information is currently available on the details of the results, which the opposition says is tainted by fraud.

Salif Kébé, president of Guinea’s electoral commission CENI said: “The partial results of 263 return forms have been returned on a constituency basis and the CENI will announce the results as they arrive to us from the administrative commissions of the tallying centres.”

“There are several constituencies that are done compiling the results, the forms are with us, but there are several of them which are the subject for a recourse before the judge.According to the law we can only declare them after the judge has definitively emptied the dispute,” he added

At least seven people have been killed in clashes between government and opposition supporters, protests and fires reported throughout the country.

Police have arrested at least 50 people following an arson attack that killed five children central of the country after the Sunday vote.

“After the violence in Kalinko, security forces made arrests of at least 50 people who were all transferred to Faranah prison,” Mamadou Lamarana Diallo, a local official, told Guinean radio on Wednesday.

Diallo said some of those arrested were carrying weapons, and that the wave of violence in the town had spread to nearby villages.

Sunday’s vote was the first of its kind since the end of the era of military dictatorship, and followed eight years of delays blamed on a lack of funds, political infighting and the 2013-16 Ebola crisis.

Opposition leaders have denounced the long-delayed local elections, saying vote rigging with proxy ballots occurred at several polling stations in favour of the party of President Alpha Conde.