Guinea government resigns in wake of elections

Google – AFP, 15 January 2014

Mohamed Said Fofana smiles as he attends a handover ceremony with previous

 transition Prime Minister Jean Mari Dore (unseen) on December 27, 2010 in Conakry

(AFP/File, Cellou Diallo)

Conakry — Guinea's prime minister and government resigned on Wednesday as part of a transition to a new regime following the first parliamentary elections in more than a decade, a statement from President Alpha Conde's office said.

The move, which had been widely expected as part of the west African nation's return to democracy following years of unrest, comes two days after the newly-elected national assembly opened for business.

"I have just presented the resignation of my government to the president of the republic... He thanked the members of the government for all their efforts during these three years," Mohamed Said Fofana was quoted as saying.

Ballot boxes are pictured on October 7,

 2013 at the Matoto polling station in

 Conakry (AFP/File, Mamadou Cellou

Diallo)

Fofana thanked Conde "for the confidence he has put in me over the three years", describing his premiership as "a great opportunity".

"Obviously, as I've said elsewhere, in human activity, there are always acts that succeed and others that don't. But overall, (the president) is pleased with the efforts that have been put in and is committed to continue to work to bring this country out of poverty," he added.

The September 28 polls gave Conde's Rally of the Guinean People (RGP) and its junior partners an absolute majority in the parliament but the ballot came under heavy criticism from opposition parties.

The opposition coalition alleged "massive fraud", claiming the polls were marred by irregularities including ballot stuffing, voter intimidation and minors casting votes.

International observers also said serious flaws had affected the credibility of the vote and anti-government demonstrators have staged several protests in Guinea's capital Conakry over a Supreme Court ruling in November confirming the result.

The election had been delayed numerous times since the country's first-ever democratic poll in 2010, stoking deadly ethnic tensions that have dogged Guinean politics since independence.

Voters chose from some 1,700 candidates vying for 114 seats in a national assembly which replaced the transitional parliament that had been running the country since military rule came to an end in 2010.

The vote was initially due to have been held within six months of Conde's swearing-in during December of that year, but was delayed amid disputes over its organisation.

One of the poorest countries in the region despite vast potential for mineral exploitation, Guinea was run by a succession of autocratic rulers after gaining independence from France in 1958.

A military junta took control in December 2008 at the death of President Lansana Conte, who seized power in a coup 24 years earlier. In 2010, civilian rule was ushered in after a transition period and an election also marred by delays and violent ethnic clashes.

Politics in Guinea typically polarises some two dozen ethnic groups who otherwise live in harmony alongside each other -- with the Fulani the largest at around 40 percent of the population followed by the Malinke and Soussou.

The country's iron-fisted first president Ahmed Sekou Toure was a Malinke who ruled for 26 years until his death in 1984, denouncing the economically dominant Fulani as hoarders of the country's wealth.

When Conde, also a Malinke, defeated Fulani opponent Cellou Dalein Diallo in 2010, this once again deprived the country's biggest and wealthiest ethnic group of political power again.

Guinean President Alpha Conde (C) speaks

 to the press after casting his vote at a

 polling station in Conakry on September 28,

2013 (AFP/File, Cellou Binani)

Conde's RGP claims to espouse socialism while its main opponents, the Union of Democratic Forces of Guinea (UDFG) and the Union of Republican Forces (URF) have centrist, liberal leanings.

But in practice there is little to separate their ideologies, say observers.

Guinea -- already the world?s largest producer of bauxite, used to make aluminium -- has many other untapped minerals, including diamonds, gold and uranium.

It also lies above one of the planet's richest deposits of undeveloped iron ore, signed away by Conte on his death bed for a tiny percentage of its multi-billion-dollar value amid allegations of corruption in a deal reportedly being investigated by the FBI.

As a result, it remains one of the region's poorest nations, with stagnating economy and inflation at 13 percent, youth unemployment estimated at 60 percent and 178th out of 187 countries on the UN's Human Development Index.