Guineans are voting in a controversial presidential election that is expected to see incumbent President Alpha Conde re-elected for a second term after a campaign plagued with accusations and violence. Aljazeera was there:
Polling stations opened on Sunday with national borders closed for the day and traffic restricted to the vehicles of electoral observers, government officials and the security forces, according to a presidential decree.
Opponents of President Conde had called for the postponement over what they called the unreliability of the electoral lists and problems with distributing voter cards, which are required to cast a ballot. The results of the first round are not expected until Tuesday at the earliest.
Conde’s seven rivals vowed to challenge the results, raising the spectre of further unrest in the days to come, after deadly clashes between Conde and opposition supporters in the final days of campaigning. An African Union observer mission and a 72-member European Union delegation are in Guinea to monitor the ballot, along with 19,000 police and members of the security services.
