Guinea PM says new constitution would bring 'dynamic of change'

Prime Minister Amadou Oury Bah believes voters in junta-led Guinea desire a "dynamic of change" which he says a new constitution being voted on Sunday would provide, but the opposition has called for a boycott of the referendum.

Four years after a coup overthrew elected president Alpha Conde, Guinea's 6.7 million voters are being asked whether they accept a new draft constitution that, in theory, paves the way for presidential and legislative elections by the end of the year.

But opponents, who accuse the military government of silencing dissent, say the junta is aiming to stay in power.

In the run-up to the constitutional ballot, the civilian prime minister, in an interview with AFP at his official residence, defended the military-run government's record and promoted a "yes" vote.

After seizing power in 2021, the new junta government promised to hand power back to civilians at the end of a transition period, stipulating that none of its leaders, government members or heads of institutions would be able to stand in elections.

Junta chief Mamady Doumbouya originally pledged not to be a candidate, though all the indications suggest he will be.

A billboard in the capital Conakry urges a 'yes' vote for the draft constitution. By PATRICK MEINHARDT (AFP)

Asked if Doumbouya would run, Bah responded "why not?" but remained vague, saying "any citizen who meets the minimum criteria can stand in the election".

He supports the draft constitution, he said, because it "takes into account all the demands" that Guineans have wanted in recent decades, such as "independent candidacies and the right to petition".

"Guinea aspires to a dynamic of change and unity that will put aside rifts, divisions, ethnic contradictions, to align itself with a development logic," he said.

Opposition boycott

But the opposition says the junta and Doumbouya are guilty of suppression and has called for a boycott.

Such opponents "no longer have any credibility", said Bah, who believes that the majority of Guineans are "largely in favour of the current process".

Guinea's junta chief Mamady Doumbouya came to power after a coup four years ago. By PATRICK MEINHARDT (AFP)

Guinea's junta suspended three main opposition parties -- including that of former president Conde -- at the end of August, accusing the groups of failing to fulfil "the obligations required of them", without providing further detail.

There is no "desire to target them", Bah said of the parties, adding that he saw the suspensions as a "means to clean up the political space".

Since the military came to power, other political parties as well as media outlets have been suspended.

Demonstrations, which have been banned since 2022, have been harshly repressed and several opposition leaders have been arrested, prosecuted or pushed into exile.

Dissent and disappearances

In response to accusations of silencing dissent, Bah said that some opposition members had sought to "destabilise" the country and used "violent methods to achieve their ends".

Authorities, he said, are acting in a "fragile context" to maintain "national security" and to protect the "major interests of the country".

Bah said he did "not deny" the disappearance of opposition members and stated that he hoped they were "alive and well".

Several opponents of the military government have been abducted in recent years and their fate remains unknown. Guinean authorities have said they know nothing about the matter.

"The investigation hasn't yielded any new information recently, but we haven't given up hope," he said.

'Crucial electoral year'

Posters depicting Doumbouya or expressing support for a "yes" vote are omnipresent in the streets of the capital, Conakry.

Bah told AFP the draft constitution takes into account voters' demands for 'independent candidacies and the right to petition'. By PATRICK MEINHARDT (AFP)

Meanwhile, numerous events celebrating Doumbouya, including football matches, have been organised across the country.

Doumbouya had promised in a New Year's greeting that 2025 would be a "crucial electoral year to deliver the return to constitutional order".

Bah reiterated the message, stating that "Guinea will move towards elections in 2025" but without giving a precise date for the vote.

Measures in the draft constitution would effectively exclude former president Conde and former prime minister Cellou Dalein Diallo from running for president, which Bah brushed aside, saying the opponents "belong to the past".

Bah also pointed to what he said was a major success of the junta: The trial for a massacre that left at least 156 people dead and hundreds injured at an opposition rally at a stadium in the Conakry suburbs in September 2009 under the dictatorship of former junta chief Moussa Dadis Camara.

"Who would have thought that soldiers, as part of a transition, would try and have tried other soldiers, from another transition," he said.