The head of the military regime in Guinea announced the organization of a constitutional referendum in 2024, a step towards a return of civilians to power, more than two years after the coup that overthrew President Alpha Condé.
“During the new year a new Constitution will be submitted to referendum which resembles us and brings us together,” declared Colonel Mamadi Doumbouya in an end-of-year speech on Sunday evening, without giving a date. He promised “a Constitution approved by the people and which is not copy and paste, but a Constitution which draws inspiration from the past to build our future together”.
The head of the ruling military also indicated that state appointees will soon be appointed to lead the municipal councils, elected in 2018 and whose terms end in the first quarter of 2024.
Almost all municipal councils are currently led by officials from the parties of former President Condé and former Prime Minister Cellou Dalein Diallo, who are very critical of the management of the military.
Colonel Doumbouya linked these announcements to the desire to “continue the considerable efforts to return to constitutional order, through the organization of free, democratic and transparent elections from the base to the top while respecting”, according to him, the program transition for a return of civilians to power.
Divisions et corruption
Colonel Doumbouya led the military coup that overthrew civilian President Alpha Condé, in power for more than ten years, on September 5, 2021.
Mr. Condé became the first democratically elected president of Guinea in 2010 after decades of authoritarian or dictatorial regimes, but his desire to remain in power, by modifying the Constitution to run for a third term, had raised strong protests, which were harshly repressed. , until his fall.
After the 2021 putsch, Colonel Mamadi Doumbouya was inaugurated president and under international pressure committed to handing over power to elected civilians within two years from January 2023. He promised to rebuild a state undermined by divisions and widespread corruption. His government has initiated a large number of prosecutions against relatives of ex-President Condé.
The September 5, 2021 coup is one of several coups and attempted coups that have rocked West Africa since colonels seized power in Mali in August 2020.