(5 minutes read)
· Guinea is bracing itself for its presidential election taking place next Sunday. While that is happening in full swing
· Guinea’s blogger association has decided to deploy around 150 observers to report any possible incidents or frauds in the
election
· Internet freedom monitors have their eyes trained on Guinea ahead of its tension-filled election on Sunday
· They fear that the government will restrict access to social media to weaken the opposition
Guinea is bracing itself for its presidential election taking place next Sunday. While that is happening in full swing, Guinea’s blogger association has decided to deploy around 150 observers to report any possible incidents or frauds in the election.
In the West African state, President Alpha Conde, 82, is bidding for a controversial third term. Apart from monitoring the election process, the bloggers association said that they would also keep tabs on president Alpha Conde’s promises made along the way. Internet freedom monitors worry an internet shutdown could incapacitate reports of shortcomings on the day of the vote. Authorities often resort to internet shutdown. Last March during the constitutional referendum, several websites could not be accessed. The president has pushed through a revamped constitution in a referendum which allowed him to sidestep a two-term limit for presidents.
Internet freedom monitors have their eyes trained on Guinea ahead of its tension-filled election on Sunday. They fear that the government will restrict access to social media to weaken the opposition.
Before the March referendum, the country’s telecoms infrastructure firm Guilab announced repairs to its submarine internet cable. But that got postponed after an outcry by the internet community. However, on March 21 access to apps such as Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and Whatsapp was disrupted. .
The disruption originated from Guinea’s leading mobile internet service providers, Orange and South Africa’s MTN, which was admonished by African Union’s special rapporteur on freedom of expression, Lawrence Mute. Guinean authorities, so far, have not come out with any restrictions on internet freedom. But the internet community is keeping its option free since it apprehends that like in the past, this could happen all of a sudden without any notice.
