The military commander who has ruled Guinea since a coup four years ago has entered the presidential race, breaking an earlier promise to hand power to a civilian government.<\/p>\n
Col Mamadi Doumbouya submitted his candidacy at the Supreme Court on Monday, flanked by soldiers and wearing black sunglasses. He did not make any public comment.<\/p>\n
Two of Guinea\u2019s biggest opposition parties \u2013 RPG Arc en Ciel and UFDG \u2013 have been excluded from December\u2019s contest.<\/p>\n
This has raised concerns about the election\u2019s credibility.<\/p>\n
Guineans had reacted with shock last month when it was announced that presidential candidates would need to pay a deposit of 875m Guinean francs ($100,000; \u00a375,000) to contest the election.<\/p>\n
While the previous deposit was almost as high \u2013 800m francs \u2013 some analysts had hoped it would be reduced to encourage more people to stand in these historic elections.<\/p>\n
\u200eFour years ago, Col Doumbouya had pledged to hand power back to civilians, saying \u201cNeither I nor any member of this transition will be a candidate for anything\u2026 As soldiers, we value our word very much.\u201d \u200e<\/p>\n
The election is being held under a new constitution that allowed Col Doumbouya to run for the presidency.<\/p>\n
Under his rule, the Guinean authorities have been cracking down on peaceful dissent, including attempts to mobilise people towards a return to democratic rule.<\/p>\n
The junta has been criticised for suspending media outlets, restricting internet access and brutally suppressing demonstrations.<\/p>\n
Yet Col Doumbouya justified deposing then-83-year-old President Alpha Cond\u00e9 on similar charges \u2013 including rampant corruption, disregard for human rights and economic mismanagement.<\/p>\n
Prior to seizing power in the 2021 coup, Col Doumbouya was a middle-ranking soldier. His 15-year military career included missions in Afghanistan, Ivory Coast, Djibouti, Central African Republic and close protection in Israel, Cyprus, the UK and Guinea.<\/p>\n
Aged 40, he is currently the youngest African head of state.<\/p>\n
December\u2019s election will take place in the absence of several prominent figures \u2013 such as ex-President Alpha Cond\u00e9 who was kicked out of power in 2021, and former Prime Ministers Cellou Dalein Diallo and Sidya Tour\u00e9 \u2013 all of whom are currently living abroad.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The military commander who has ruled Guinea since a coup four years ago has entered the presidential race, breaking an earlier promise to hand power to a civilian government. Col Mamadi Doumbouya submitted his candidacy at the Supreme Court on Monday, flanked by soldiers and wearing black sunglasses. He did not make any public comment. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-124104","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","entry"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/124104","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=124104"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/124104\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=124104"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=124104"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=124104"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}