President Alpha Conde of Guinea will be running for a third term in office despite outrage and widespread protests in which up to 30 people have died. This has not only riled up the political climate of Guinea but is now causing division among opposition factions on whether to participate in the coming elections or not.

A coalition of members of the opposition has chosen to boycott the elections and remove candidates from their ranks. “The political parties that have decided to compete today have moved away from the principles of the FNDC,” said Aliou Bah, a representative of the FNDC. The group has further called for the recommencement of protests in major parts of Guinea, beginning on the 29th of September, 2020. 

Conde was elected into office in 2010 and enjoyed the goodwill of a civil administration but he is not passing on this civility as he continues to clamp down on dissent and opposing voices. The government has also failed to investigate deaths and other abuses by security forces during political protests in Guinea. 

A political activist known as, Souleymane Condé, who recently arrived in Conakry from the United States of America to launch a new pro-opposition political movement, was arrested on September 12, 2020, shortly after he held a press conference to launch this movement in a passionate speech.

“It is important that Republican values return to this country. I communicate with a lot of Guineans. They are fed up with the situation they are living in. There are thousands of Guineans who were born for 20 years ago and who have not seen the water at the pump; they do not know what is well-being, and all that is due to bad management. We have to change this country,” he said.

The former coordinator of the Front National pour la Défense de la Constitution (FNDC) is a popular critic of Alpha Conde in Guinea. He remains in detention at the Criminal Investigations Division of the Police.