SEVERAL KILLED IN GUINEA AS VOTERS CAST BALLOTS IN CONTENTIOUS REFERENDUM

10 people were killed in clashes between police and protesters, opposition activists said, as Guinea held a bitterly disputed referendum that critics say is a ploy by the president to stay in power.

Anti-government forces came under fire by security forces who “carried out massive arrests, fired blindly, cruelly molested (and) killed at least 10 people”, the FNDC, an umbrella opposition group, said in a statement.

The FNDC, grouping opposition parties and civil society organisations, called for fresh protests Monday and Tuesday.

President Alpha Condé is proposing a change to the constitution to codify gender equality and introduce other social reforms.

But his opponents fear the real motive is to reset presidential term limits, allowing Condé, 82, to run for a third spell in office later this year – a scenario that his government has not discounted.

Shortly after voting began, young people attacked police deployed outside a polling station in a school in Ratoma, a suburb of Conakry.

In another school nearby, voting equipment was vandalised.

Since October, Guineans have protested en masse against the possibility of Condé extending his grip on power.      

“I have the impression our country is taking things lightly,” said Amadou Oury Bah, a banker and politician who suspected the authorities were more interested in their electoral campaign than keeping the country safe.

The governing party called for people to vote as one official, Fode Cisse, said: “We insist on the strict respect of health measures.”

7.7 million people were on the register, out of a total population about 13 million people.

The government says it has now scrubbed the problematic names, after an expert team from the West Africa bloc ECOWAS urged doing so last week.

But Guinea’s embattled opposition still doubts the vote’s credibility.

Cellou Diallo, a former premier and the head of the leading opposition party the UFDG, said the process of cleaning up the electoral roll had been opaque.

“It is an electoral masquerade,” he said, adding that the roll did not reflect the electorate.

His party, as well as the other large opposition parties, are boycotting both the referendum and a parliamentary election that is taking place at the same time.

In a deeply polarised political environment, opposition figures have also vowed to stop the votes from taking place.     

Sidya Touré, the head of the opposition UFR party, said Condé wants to “convince the international community he is open to criticism” while pursuing a third term anyway.

A former opposition figure who was jailed under previous hardline regimes, Condé entered the record books when in 2010 he became Guinea’s first democratically-elected president.

He was returned to office by voters in 2015 for his second and final five-year term under the current constitution, but critics say he has become increasingly authoritarian, citing arrests of protest leaders.

The draft constitution would also limit presidential terms to two but extend the length of the term to six years, potentially enabling Condé to govern for another 12 years.

Guinea’s government argues the new constitution would usher in badly-needed changes in the conservative country, especially for women.

These would include banning female genital mutilation and under-age marriage, and giving spouses equal rights in a divorce.

Condé has not denied that he might use the new constitution to seek another term when his second runs out this year.

He told French media last month that there was “nothing more democratic” than holding a referendum and it was up to his party to determine whether he would run again.