Tensions high after Conde declared winner in Guinea

If the West African nation of Guinea could hold a successful election after half a century of military dictatorship and authoritarian rule, then who among African democrats could fail to take heart?

That was the feeling after the initial round of Guinea’s first democratic presidential election went smoothly in June.

But with runoff results delayed for a week, until late Monday night, and ethnic violence flaring hours earlier in anticipation of opposition leader Alpha Conde’s eventual victory, the future of democracy in the tiny, poverty-stricken country was at risk Tuesday.

Security forces were on the streets after riots staged by the supporters of the losing candidate, former Prime Minister Cellou Dalein Diallo. Several people were fatally shot and dozens were hospitalized.

With political rivalries split along ethnic lines, there were reports that members of the armed forces, most of them part of the Malinke group, which Conde belongs to, had fired indiscriminately in strongholds of the Peul, Diallo’s ethnic group.

Analysts believe Guinea’s peaceful transition to democracy would be a stabilizing force in the once-volatile region that includes neighbors recovering from civil war, such as Ivory Coast, Sierra Leone and Liberia. But the area also includes Gambia, where powerful President Yahya Jammeh recently declared that he wants to be made king.

If the Guinean protests were to escalate into violence, civil war or another coup, the analysts say, the chaos could undermine the emerging regional stability.

Conde called for harmony and unity after official results gave him 52.5% of the vote to 47.5% for Diallo, who did not accept the outcome but called for calm. Diallo urged his supporters to avoid provoking security forces.

He said he would file a court appeal to try to overturn the results in some districts. The former prime minister, who led in the first-round voting, said he would prove that the latest count was riddled with irregularities and that he was the victor.

Diallo expressed anger over reports of human rights violations by the armed forces against his supporters.

“It’s truly revolting that on the one hand we call for calm and restraint and on the other there is repression,” he told reporters. “I call on the authorities to ask their security forces to stop this.”

Without referring directly to a preelection deal between the candidates that each would offer the loser a government post, Conde said it was time to move forward.

“The time has come to reach out in a spirit of brotherhood to tackle together the numerous challenges the country faces,” he said on French radio. “That will only be possible in a calm atmosphere and with the cooperation of all Guineans.”

The United Nations representative in Guinea, Said Djinnit, said Tuesday that most people had heeded calls for calm after the announcement of the election results, despite violence overnight. U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on Monday urged Guineans to accept the results.

Despite the pleas, people with gunshot wounds streamed into one of the main hospitals in the capital, Conakry, the Associated Press reported. The streets in Diallo strongholds were deserted and gunfire could be heard, according to the news agency.

Diallo told reporters that the security forces were using the cover of the election to seize Peul people in their homes, beat them, and rob or arrest them. He said his sister-in-law and niece had been detained.

Guinea was the first French colony in Africa to win independence, in 1958. But despite its bauxite riches, the country ranks 156th of 169 countries on the United Nations Development Program index of human development, with most of the population desperately poor.

After independence, Guinea was ruled by a succession of repressive, authoritarian regimes.

robyn.dixon@latimes.com