Guinea to draft new constitution amid protests

By Felix Tih

ANKARA (AA) - The president of Guinea announced that draft changes to the country's constitution were being drawn up.

Despite recent protests over the past months over concerns that he would seek a third term in office, Alpha Conde said in a televised speech Thursday night that he instructed his justice minister to take measures to draw up a draft constitution.

"This proposal will be the subject of a broad public outreach campaign before its adoption by the sovereign people," Conde said of the new constitution that would pave the way for him to vie for the presidency in 2020.

"Since the creation of the FNDC [National Front for the Defense of the Constitution] we have explained to the people of Guinea and to the international community that Alpha Conde wants to stand for a third mandate [...] so this is a confirmation,'' said Sidya Toure, former prime minister according to Conakry-based website Guineenews.

In October, a coalition of Guinean opposition groups announced in a statement that 10 protesters had been killed, 70 wounded and 200 arrested over protests against a possible constitutional change to allow President Conde to run for a third or even a fourth term.

The current constitution, adopted only nine years ago, allows the president to run for only two five-year terms.

With Conde's current term set to end in December 2020, civil society groups, trade unions and opposition parties have joined forces against Conde changing the constitution.

Guinea's current demonstration ban began in July 2018, as the government faced a series of protests by opposition political parties, civil society groups, and unions over allegedly fraudulent local elections, a fuel price increase, and the government’s failure to resolve a longstanding teachers’ strike.

''Many of these protests resulted in incidents of violence between the protesters and the security forces,'' according to the Human Rights Watch.