Guinea.westafrica.election25jun10.afp-pix

Guinea presidential run-off election postponed

Guinea presidential run-off election postponed(AFP) – 1 hour agoCONAKRY — The second round of Guinea’s presidential election, scheduled for July 18, has been postponed to a date yet to be set, an electoral commission official told AFP on Friday in Conakry.”It all depends on the supreme court, but it will no longer be July 18,” said Pathe Dieng, director of operations at the National Independent Electoral Commission (CENI).Guinea’s supreme court is currently considering several complaints lodged by political parties over the running of the first round of the presidential election on June 27.”We are waiting to see, to approach the supreme court to fix a new date,” he added, referring to the run-off between former prime minister Cellou Dalein Diallo and a veteran opponent of many Guinean regimes, Alpha Conde.Thousands of supporters of Guinean former prime minister Sidya Toure rallied Monday alleging electoral fraud after their candidate placed third, missing the second-round run-off.Many others among the initial 24 candidates have also alleged voting irregularities — and the electoral commission has itself acknowledged “many cases of fraud”.Under commission rules, objectors had eight days to contest the results.According to provisional results, which the court still has to confirm, in the first round Diallo got 39.72 percent of the vote and Conde 20.67 percent.On June 27, more than three million Guineans, 77 percent of registered voters, took part in the West African nation’s first democratic election since independence from France in 1958.  ref: AFP