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- President Alpha Conde’s efforts to hold a referendum to change the constitution meet severe opposition
- The Opposition parties have threatened to boycott the vote.
Hundreds of thousands of protesters in Guinea took to the streets over President Alpha Conde’s efforts to hold a referendum to change the constitution. The President allegedly wants to amend the constitution to seek another term to govern beyond his current final and second term. The referendum on changing the constitution in the former French colony is scheduled to be held on March 1, along with the parliamentary elections. The Opposition parties have threatened to boycott the vote.
Hundreds of thousands of people in the country have protested since mid-October against the President’s plans to use a constitutional referendum to stay in power. The clashes have led to more than 30 deaths of demonstrators. The capital Conakry wore a deserted look, with people deciding to stay indoors.
Conde was a political leader and was jailed under previous hard-line regimes, He became Guinea’s first democratically elected president in 2010 and was returned to the office by voters in 2015 for his second and final five-year term under the current constitution. He first launched consultations on reforming the constitution in September, which met severe protests from the opposition. Conde said on Monday that his party would decide whether he would run for the president again, adding that there was “nothing more democratic” than holding a referendum.
