CONAKRY — Counting is underway in Guinea after Sunday’s legislative and municipal elections. The vote marks a step towards the return of democratic rule after the 2021 coup that brought President Mamadi Doumbouya to power.
Seven million voters were eligible to elect 147 members of parliament nationwide. Turnout was reportedly low in the capital Conakry and the central city of Labe. Most candidates were drawn from the presidential camp after the government dissolved the main opposition parties in March.
Some voters expressed confusion and disengagement at the polls. "I don't even know who to vote for," Mariatou Diallo, 18, told AFP as she cast her first-ever vote in a Conakry suburb. Alassane Barry, a 23-year-old student, said he did not know any of the candidates, calling them "unknown figures."
The government has suspended many political parties, banned protests, and arrested opposition and civil society leaders in recent months. Enforced disappearances and abductions of dissidents and their relatives have become common, according to available reports.
The Democratic Front of Guinea (Frondeg) denounced an assault on one of its candidates in the central town of Mamou. Abdoulaye Bademba Diallo was "attacked in a restaurant on Saturday evening by two hooded individuals on a motorcycle," the party said. Frondeg placed second in the December presidential election with a 6.6 percent vote share.
The campaign unfolded peacefully, despite the politically constrained environment. The elections took place just days after the major religious holiday of Eid al-Adha. The Institute for Studies and Security think tank recently warned that political structures are at risk of being "dominated by a single force." Mamadi Doumbouya was elected to a seven-year presidential term in December facing no serious opposition. Doumbouya had initially promised to hand power back to civilians at the end of a transition period.