The ‘Rassemblement du Peuple de Guinee’ (ruling RPG) and parties that have thrown their weight behind President Alpha Conde announces, in a joint statement read Monday evening on national television, his candidacy for the October 8, 2020 presidential election.
“We have the immense privilege and happiness to inform the people of Guinea that Mr. Conde acceded to our request. President Alpha Conde will be our candidate for the presidential election of October 18, 2020,” says the press release read by the Director General of RTG.
Asked by his party and his allies at their convention held in early August, Alpha Cond had then said to have “taken note” and asked his supporters to suggest him a program focused on young people, women and the most deprived.
“If you want me to accept your proposal, you have to make a commitment that the RPG will return to what it was, a party that leaves no one behind,” he told delegates from his party.
The parties of the presidential majority have thus submitted to the president a “pact proposal” for the application of this program, the note informs.
The wave of protests initiated last year by the National Front for the Defense of the Constitution (FNDC) has therefore not have been able to dissuade Alpha Conde, 82, from running for a third term. And this, in spite of the hundreds of people shot dead during the FNDC demonstrations.
Elected for the first time in 2010 and re-elected in 2015, Alpha Conde has always expressed his rejection of the term limit, which he considers unfair. The Guinean Constitution, like many others in the sub-region, in fact limits to two the number of successive terms that a president can hold.
But since the controversial referendum of last March, the supporters of the octogenarian president believe that this change in the fundamental law has enabled the Guinean head of state to reset the counters to zero. An interpretation that Alpha Conde makes his own by responding favorably to the request of his supporters.
ARD/te/fss/abj/APA