Guinea is holding a long-awaited referendum on a new constitution that could allow coup leader Mamady Doumbouya to run for president and would transition the African nation from military to civilian rule.
Polls opened and will close later on Sunday for the 6.7 million eligible voters to cast a “yes” or “no” vote on a new constitution that would lengthen the presidential term from five to seven years, renewable once, and create a Senate, one-third of whose members the president would directly appoint.
In the capital, Conakry, where political campaigning was banned on Friday and Saturday, people gathered at polling stations early on Sunday to cast their votes.
Reporting from Conakry, Al Jazeera’s Ahmed Idris said the government has deployed security officers with a government statement outlining that “more than 40,000 security personnel have been deployed to provide security for this election”.
“People are expecting that the referendum will result in the approval of the draft constitution that some people call impressive and progressive,” Idris said.
“However, people who are opposed to this referendum are saying it will legitimise the current military rulership to participate in the election. The transitional charter said, in fact, no member of the current military government will participate, but a lot of people fear that the referendum will result in a constitution that will allow every member of this government to participate in the [next] election,” he added
Critics are closely watching the referendum, fearing that this is the latest attempt by the government to legitimise its rule on a continent where eight coups since 2023 in West and Central Africa have changed the political landscape.
The referendum has also been criticised as a power grab by Doumbouya. His military-led government missed a December deadline it had set to return the government to civilian rule after he had seized power four years ago.
A presidential election is scheduled to take place in December.
While the military leader has not yet said if he would run in the presidential election, a transitional charter adopted by his government after it took power said coup members would be barred from standing in the next elections.
Sunday’s vote is likely to pass as two of the prominent opposition leaders, Cellou Dalein Diallo and deposed former President Alpha Conde, have called for a boycott of the vote.
Both Diallo’s and Conde’s parties are currently suspended with Human Rights Watch accusing the military government of disappearing political opponents, which it has denied.
The results of the election are expected within the next two to three days, Idris said.
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