Thirty-three political parties, two from the opposition, have submitted their applications for the legislative elections in Guinea, scheduled for 16 February 2020, the country’s Independent National Electoral Commission (CENI) announced in Conakry on Tuesday.
By Sadjo Diallo
It briefed the press after a 72-hour extension of the deadline for the submission of candidacies.
“Among these 33 political parties, we have 12 that have put forward candidates for both the national list system of proportional representation and the first-past-the-post system. Another 17 have presented candidates only for the national list for proportional representation and 4 others have presented candidates only for the first-past-the-post system,” explained Amadou Macka Diallo, a CENI seeing after the reception and management of candidacy files.
In addition, the Union of Democratic Forces (UFD) of Mamadou Bâadiko and the Union for Development in Guinea (UDD) of Mamadou Sylla, are the two opposition parties that have decided to take part in the legislative elections.
In so doing, they are ignoring the announcement by Cellou Dalein Diallo for the opposition’s decision to boycott the legislative elections.
Justifying his party’s action, Dembo Sylla, 1st vice-president of the UDD, said: “the decision to participate in these elections came from the grassroots. Our supporters felt that we should take part in this election. That is why we decided to submit our candidacy.”
SD/ard/cat/lb/as/APA