Tensions rise ahead of Guinea presidential poll

Conakry (AFP) - Tensions flared in Guinea ahead of Sunday's presidential election, only the country's second such democratic vote, as the opposition warned of fraud and incumbent President Alpha Conde appealed for a massive victory.

Calls for calm multiplied Friday, the day after two people were killed in pre-election violence.

"We have seen since yesterday a deterioration in the security situation," UN special representative for West Africa Mohamed Ibn Chambas told a press conference.

After a largely peaceful campaign, Conde's main rival Cellou Dalein Diallo this week called for the poll to be delayed as ethnic tensions emerged and clashes between supporters of the two contenders left at least two people dead on Thursday.

Returning to Conakry after a three-week tour across the mineral-rich but destitute nation, Diallo asked for the vote to be delayed on the grounds that the electoral roll has been stacked in favour of Conde.

"We won't take part in an electoral sham," Diallo said at his last campaign rally.

"Otherwise we shan't accept the results and I shall mobilise the population with all the other (opposition) candidates to reject them," he warned, accusing the Independent National Electoral Commission (CENI) of being "incompetent and biased".

Six of Conde's seven opponents -- who include three former prime ministers -- have called for the vote to be postponed, citing the unreliability of the electoral lists and problems with distributing electoral cards.

But Conde told journalists that "the CENI is perfectly entitled to organise the election on October 11."

In Conakry on Friday, traffic was disrupted on the large Fidel Castro motorway to the airport as Conde supporters stopped cars and pedestrians suspected of backing the opposition.

At the Madina market, traders from Conde's Malinke people whose wares were torched Thursday kept out Fulani traders close to Diallo's UFDG party.

Overnight shops belonging to Fulani traders were looted by Conde supporters in reprisal for the arson attack at the market.

"I've visited several districts since this morning and I can say that what I have seen is very serious," Human Rights Minister Kalifa Gassama Diaby told AFP Friday, adding that he would be calling for more police on the streets.

Some 19,000 police and security personnel have already been deployed to keep the peace.

Nevertheless, at one stage the motorcade of Prime Minister Mohamed Said Fofana was forced to make a detour to avoid a shower of rocks being hurled by rival groups, a police source said.

- 'Five years for nothing' -

In power for five years, Conde hopes to be returned to office in the first round of the poll, in which he faces seven rivals.

His election in 2010 was the first free vote in the west African country of 12 million people, long ruled by military men and with a reputation for trouble at election time.

A European Union observer mission that has just reached its full strength of 72 members announced, like the CENI, that it is all set for a vote on Sunday, if there is no postponement.

"We're ready for an election that should take place on Sunday," mission chief Frank Engel said, before visiting the southeastern town of N'Zerekore, where one person died and dozens were injured last week in clashes between supporters of Conde and Diallo.

Diallo charges that the CENI has included minors on the electoral roll to boost Conde's chances in the vote, while Conde counters that the panel is truly independent and has won plaudits from the international community.

- 'Ask the people of Guinea' -

Conde's campaign slogan is a confident "KO blow", boasting his intention to rout his rivals in the first round of the election.

He points out that during his five years at the helm, the army and judiciary have been reformed, a hydroelectric dam has been completed and mining contracts have been made more transparent, while a severe outbreak of Ebola was also controlled.

"Ask the people of Guinea if what we have done in five years, the others did in 50. Ask that on the streets," he said in an interview.

CENI spokesman Amadou Salifou Kebe said the election could go ahead Sunday as planned but acknowledged that distribution of voting cards was uneven.

Guineans in neighbouring Sierra Leone who have not received voters' cards ransacked their embassy in protests this week, ambassador Fode Camara said Thursday. Sierra Leonean police said they had arrested 29 Guineans.