Guinea's ruling party falls short of majority in legislative vote

By Saliou Samb

CONAKRY (Reuters) – President Alpha Conde’s ruling party won 53 seats in Guinea’s September 28 legislative election, falling short of securing an outright majority in the West African nation’s 114-seat parliament, the electoral commission said on Friday.

Provisional results published by the commission showed that the main opposition UFDG party, led by Conde’s rival, Cellou Dalein Diallo, won 37 seats while former Prime Minister Sidya Toure’s UFR secured 10 seats.

Other smaller parties grabbed the remaining seats. No party was expected to win an outright majority and parties are expected to try to form coalitions following the long-delayed and tense election in the world’s top bauxite producer.

Conde’s RPG has been in power since 2010.

“The Electoral Commission will transmit the results to the Supreme Court, which is authorised to publish the final results,” electoral commission president Bakary Fofana, told a news conference in Conakry.

The legislative vote is due to complete a long-delayed transition back to civilian rule following a 2008 military coup in Guinea, which is also home to some of the world’s largest iron ore reserves.

Disputes over the results from a partial count of votes from various districts had raised fears of a resurgence of violence that killed about 50 people before the election.

Uncertainty over the vote, which was delayed by over two years, contributed to a dampening of enthusiasm of major mining firms, which have in recent years pledged billions of dollars in investments in Guinea, mainly for iron ore operations.

Opposition parties rejected earlier partial results alleging the government was rigging the vote. Last week they pulled their representatives out of the election’s organising commission, and called for the vote to be annulled.

UFR’s Toure said opposition parties were not aware and were not informed that provisional results were to be announced on Friday.

“We will meet tomorrow (Saturday) to make a decision in relation to these results. For now, we once again denounce the massive fraud that was orchestrated by the government,” he said.

Toure did not give further details or say whether the opposition will lodge complaints with the Supreme Court.

Ruling party spokesman Moustapha Naite said though relieved by the announcement of the results, the party has filed complaints with the Supreme Court over results from some districts.

According to Guinea’s law, parties have eight days to file complaints and the Supreme Court is expected to publish final results three days after that deadline.

(Writing by Bate Felix; Editing by Sandra Maler and Paul Simao)

Guinea's ruling party falls short of majority in legislative vote