Elie Kamano, a former reggae musician, has expressed interest in running in Guinea’s Presidential Elections.
The musician-turned-politician and his Guinean Party for Solidarity and Democracy (GPSD) will contest against President Alpha Condé, 82, who is seeking a controversial third term on October 18.
Condé this week, accepted his party’s nomination as candidate in the election.
The musician, who says he is driven to correct years of wrongs and corruption by leaders of the country, has called on his supporters to help him raise the required fee set for registration of candidates by the electoral commission.
But internet users trolled his request for the funds, totalling about four hundred million Gnf.
Reacting to the trolls, Kamano insisted that “his approach is that of any political party which shares the same ideal as the citizens ”.
He added, “At the base, we come to the populations to tell them that we are not like the other traditional political parties whose leaders have often served or worked in the various regimes which have succeeded in Guinea. We are young people and we intend to invent the future with different strategies, different means that do not come from state coffers.
“This is why with the 400 million that the party was able to mobilize, we are not going to turn to the politicians to give us the other 400 million, we are not going to turn to the power to beg them but rather to the people so that he feels concerned towards the ideal for which we are fighting. ”