The Guinean Government has begun the distribution of voter cards to the electorate in the country ahead of the general elections scheduled for October.
Voter cards distribution began on Saturday. Some citizens in the opposition strongholds have alleged that Guinean electoral body – the Independent National Electoral Commission (CENI) – had purposely left them off the voters list.
Mamadou Baldé, CENI’s technical assistant, denied this, explaining that those left off the list had incomplete information.
He said: “So when we finished doing the integration, anyone who didn’t have all the necessary information and documents was put aside.”
In total over five million voting cards should be handed out by the CENI.
Voters will have until October 18th, the date of the vote, to collect their cards.
Twelve candidates will be running for president, amongst which current head of state Alpha Condé.
In August Condé had announced he would officially run for a third term. He had earlier in March pushed through a constitutional amendment which allows him to elongate his tenure as president of the West African country.
The 82-year-old’s announcement was met with protests. But On September 9, the Guinea’s Constitutional Council, the highest judicial body in the country, cleared Conde’s bid to seek re-election.
The council also approved 11 other candidates including Conde’s main opposition challenger, Cellou Dalein Diallo.
Octogenarian Conde was first elected in 2010, and was re-elected in 2015.