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Young supporters of Guinean opponent Cellou Dalien Diallo, who has declared himself the winner of the presidential election, clashed with police on Wednesday in the Wanindara district of the country's capital Conakry.
African election monitors said Tuesday that Guinea's weekend election was conducted properly, but the political opposition to incumbent Alpha Conde, which has already claimed victory, dismissed it as fraudulent.
Preliminary results for four of the country's 38 voting districts released by electoral commission chief Kabinet Cisse late Tuesday showed a strong lead for Conde over his main challenger Cellou Dalein Diallo, who had claimed victory Monday.
In three of the four districts, Conde secured more than the 50 percent needed to avoid a runoff vote, although an electoral commission official told AFP it was "impossible to extrapolate" to the final national result, expected later this week.
"Alpha Conde is doing everything possible to change ballot-box results in his favour" Diallo's campaign director Fode Oussou Fofana had earlier told reporters in the capital Conakry.
The opposition campaign has been setting the stage for an election dispute, with Fofana accusing the government of "large-scale fraud" in counting ballots from the hotly contested October 18 poll.
Conde, 82, is seeking a controversial third presidential term, a move that has triggered months of deadly unrest in the West African nation.
- Augustin Matata Ponyo, the African Union's head of mission in Guinea, said the ballot took place "in transparency" while the head of the West African ECOWAS monitoring mission said the vote was lawful.
Celebrations in Conakry of Diallo's self-proclaimed victory quickly descended into violent clashes with security forces, in which several youngsters were shot dead, opposition officials said.
Meanwhile in a seeming response to Diallo's self-proclaimed win, security forces dressed in riot gear surrounded his house in the capital. He tweeted that he was trapped inside.
- 'Irresponsible and dangerous' -
Security forces killed dozens of people in protests against a Conde third term, which began in October last year--.
Although polling day was mostly calm, Diallo's self-proclaimed election victory has ratched up tensions in the former French colony of some 13 million people.
The government insists the vote was fair and that only the official electoral authority can declare the results.
Conde's RPG party also called Diallo's move "irresponsible and dangerous" on Monday.
The international community is concerned too. The United Nations, African Union, and the 15-nation ECOWAS called the premature declaration of results "regrettable", in a joint statement on Monday.
"This state of affairs is not conducive to preserving calm," the statement said.
But on Tuesday, the communications director for Diallo's UFDG party, Ousmane Gaoual Diallo, said the party's own analysis of polling data collected from individual stations showed the opposition leader had won over 50 percent of the vote
Many people have been killed since clashes began on Monday. Scores too had been killed in the run up to the vote as protestors marched against Conde's bid for a third term.
Over the past seven years, states and localities have reverted to discriminatory practices that restrict the voting rights of Black, Brown, Native, and Asian American people and have put up unnecessary roadblocks to the ballot.
On this anniversary, Tina Knowles-Lawson, Mothers of the Movement, and Black women celebrities urge the Senate to pass H.R. 6800, The HEROES Act, that includes $3.6 billion in funding for state administration of federal elections.
Tina Knowles-Lawson; Viola Davis; Whoopi Goldberg; Octavia Spencer; Jada Pinkett Smith; Beyoncé Knowles Carter; Solange Knowles; Gabrielle Union; Taraji P. Henson; Kelly Rowland; Lala Anthony; Halle Berry; Yvette Nicole Brown; Melina Matsoukas; Janelle Monáe; Bozoma Saint John; Holly Robinson Peete; Oge Egbuonu; Lena Waithe; Kerry Washington; Rashida Jones; Gwenn Carr, Mother of Eric Garner; Kadiatou Diallo, Mother of Amadou Diallo; Sybrina Fulton, Mother of Trayvon Martin; Maria Hamilton, Mother of Dontre Hamilton; Wanda Johnson, Mother of Oscar Grant;Rep. Lucy McBath, Mother of Jordan Davis Tamika Palmer, Mother of Breonna Taylor; and Geneva Reed-Veal, Mother of Sandra Bland.
Tina Knowles-Lawson, Viola Davis, Whoopi Goldberg, Octavia Spencer, Jada Pinkett Smith, Beyoncé Knowles Carter, Solange Knowles, Gabrielle Union, Taraji P. Henson, Kelly Rowland, Lala Anthony, Halle Berry, Yvette Nicole Brown, Melina Matsoukas, Janelle Monáe, Bozoma Saint John, Holly Robinson Peete, Oge Egbuonu, Lena Waithe, Kerry Washington, Rashida Jones, Gwenn Carr (Mother of Eric Garner), Kadiatou Diallo (Mother of Amadou Diallo), Sybrina Fulton (Mother of Trayvon Martin), Maria Hamilton (Mother of Dontre Hamilton), Wanda Johnson (Mother of Oscar Grant), Rep. Lucy McBath (Mother of Jordan Davis), Tamika Palmer (Mother of Breonna Taylor), Geneva Reed-Veal (Mother of Sandra Bland)
NAACP Calls Attacks on Postal Service “Unprecedented Threat to Democracy” The NAACP strongly condemns the Trump administration’s deliberate attempt to sabotage the U.S. Postal Service to obstruct voting by mail and to ensure a favorable outcome in the election. Disrupting the machinery of democracy constitutes a strike against the integrity and legitimacy of our elections. […]
The post NAACP calls attacks on postal service 'threat to democracy' appeared first on Atlanta Tribune.
Two congressmen who President David Granger earlier this year assured that elections would be free and fair, yesterday joined calls that the Guyana Elections Commission issue results in keeping with the 33-day recount, even as they called out the Chief Election Officer for his ploy to subvert the process.
The article US legislators join calls for GECOM to issue recount results appeared first on Stabroek News.
By Barnett Wright The Birmingham Times The decision whether to open the Birmingham and Bessemer Courthouses for in-person absentee voting on Saturdays is now in the hands of the Jefferson County Commission. The five-member body will meet today at noon to consider opening the courthouses Saturdays, Oct. 17 and 24 to accommodate “in-person” absentee voting […]
Dear Editor,
In an unprecedented 115 days after General and Regional Elections were held in Guyana, a declaration is yet to be made electing a new President.
The article There should be no time wasting in having Lowenfield removed appeared first on Stabroek News.
She recently announced her department will be sending out unsolicited absentee ballot applications to 7.7 million registered voters in Michigan.
In the past, opponents have been successful before Michigan courts stopping mass mailings of absentee ballot applications.
In Fleming, the court ruled unconstitutional the Macomb County Clerk’s mass mailing of absentee ballot applications.
The case relied on the following facts: the applications discriminated in favor of a narrow portion of voters, they were limited to persons over 60-years of age; the applications were sent out by a county clerk; and it violated Art. 2, Section 4 of the Michigan Constitution.
This time around a different legal outcome is more likely; because the mass mailing of absentee ballot applications is being done by a current Secretary of State, Michigan’s principal elections official, not a local county clerk.
The smart thing to do right now is for GECOM to focus their attention on ensuring all the ballots in the Electoral District number four, which had not one, but two fraudulent declarations, are counted.
However, Electoral District number four, the most populous voting district, will ultimately determine the winner of the March 2 National and Regional elections.
The two additional stations should be to speed up the counting of Electoral District number four, especially since we are not sure if the CARICOM team will be here beyond the 25 days.
Great move, more stations, but the only way to truly be productive and smart, is to have all new stations focus on Electoral District number four and not what stations 11 and 12 were assigned to count.
It is crucial for our democracy that Electoral District number four is done within the 25 days period.
In the federal courts, U.S. District Judge Fred Biery granted a preliminary injunction that said anyone in Texas who wants to vote by mail to avoid transmission of the virus could qualify for a mail-in ballot.
In multiple states that do not regularly allow all voters to vote by mail, state officials have recently expanded voting by mail due to the pandemic or allowed voters to use the coronavirus as a reason to vote by mail during the upcoming elections.
Voters who will not be in the county where they registered on the election day and during the entire early voting period can also request a ballot by mail.
In multiple lawsuits, individual voters, state Democrats and civic organizations are asking the courts to clarify whether a lack of immunity to the new coronavirus is a valid reason for people to request absentee ballots under the Texas election code’s disability qualification.
Under Texas’ election code, an absentee ballot can be delivered to the county clerk’s office by mail or dropped off in person on the day of the election with a valid form of ID.
Which, by the way, seemed to go off without a hitch (or, with plenty of them, depending on who you ask) on Tuesday when certain voters arrived at polling places with either faulty equipment or none at all, resulting in hours-long lines and unbelievable delays to cast ballots in the state’s primary.
However, what is clear is that for many Georgians on Tuesday, primary voting was a similar if not worse experience than the 2018 midterm elections, when then-Secretary of State and now-Gov.
During an interview days after that midterm election day, Democratic National Committee Chairman Tom Perez called Kemp one of the “co-chairs of the voter suppression task force of the Republican Party.”
Back in March of last year, Democrats had Elijah Cummings and the House Oversight and Reform Committee investigate Kemp and his secretary of state successor Brad Raffensperger, both Republicans, and demand they turn over documents related to Georgia’s 2018 midterm election.
Because of the court’s ruling, voters who applied for absentee ballots but didn’t receive them in time for the primary had no other option than to vote in-person, potentially exposing them to COVID-19 which has killed more than 110,000 people in the U.S. and sickened more than 2 million total as of Tuesday.
