CONAKRY, Guinea — The powerful leader of Guinea’s military junta vowed to ensure this West African nation’s first-ever free election today is fair and transparent, warning a roomful of presidential hopefuls they must help avert violence or risk casting the nation back to its volatile past.
“We can no longer continue to live like we are in a jungle, as if we are in a state without authority,” Gen. Sekouba Konate told 24 candidates gathered on couches in the presidential palace on the eve of the vote. “Too many Guineans have perished and suffered.”
“Starting from now, it’s up to you to make it happen,” he said late Saturday. The choice, he added, is between “peace, freedom and democracy, or disorder and instability.”
Konate, along with all members of his junta and a transitional governing council comprised of civilians, are barred from running in the vote. Many hope it will go down in history as the nation’s first truly democratic poll since independence from France in 1958.
The ballot also marks a spectacular turnaround for a country that months ago was full of despair. People were terrorized by an army that rampaged through the capital — courtesy of Moussa “Dadis” Camara, an erratic army captain who seized power in a December 2008 coup hours after the nation’s previous despot died.
When opposition leaders rallied at a Conakry stadium in September to insist Camara step down, the military opened fire into the crowds, massacring more than 150 people, wounding more than 1,000 and raping countless women.
Camara was shot in the head by his presidential guard chief and ultimately removed from the political stage.
Camara survived and remains in Burkina Faso as part of a January peace deal.
