Guinea president’s coalition wins legislative majority, results show

CONAKRY, June 5 (Reuters) – Political parties supporting Guinea’s coup leader, President Mamady Doumbouya, won a majority in parliamentary elections in the bauxite-rich West African country, the bauxite-rich West African nation said on Friday, tightening its grip on power.

The final distribution of Guinea’s 147 legislative seats was still being determined, but provisional data showed the pro-Doumbouya Generation of Modernity and Development (GMD) coalition strongly outperforming its rivals. The results showed the GMD and its allies won at least 100 seats.

The result will further cement the position of former special forces commander Doumbouya, who seized power in 2021 and won a seven-year presidential term in December, a result contested by his rivals.

Voter turnout nationwide was 52.87% in legislative contests for local government bodies and 58.51% in voting for local government bodies simultaneously on Sunday.

The country’s top election official, Aminata Toure, said on Thursday that political parties have eight days to challenge individual results and that any disputes will be decided by relevant judicial bodies.

Final results will be announced once these disputes are resolved.

No major opposition parties were allowed to participate in Sunday’s vote. The parties of former President Alpha Conde and opposition leaders Cellou Dalein Diallo and Sidya Toure were dissolved.

Diallo, who is in exile, called for “direct resistance” to Doumbouya in March after the government consolidated its position by shutting down those parties and 37 others.

A government decree at the time said the parties had failed to fulfill legal obligations such as submitting financial statements.

(Reporting by Guinea newsroom; Writing by Amindeh Blaise Atabong; Editing by Robbie Corey-Boulet and Sanjeev Miglani)