Guinea Conakry – One Of The African Countries Where Soldiers Prefer The Presidency To The Barracks (Part 1)

The Military That Returned To Power in 2021, Promised A New Constitution For The Country, A Democratic Presidential Election, And To Hand Back Power To Civilian Rule In Two Years (2023).

But It Is In 2025 That Work Has Started On The New Constitution With A Referendum Scheduled For Sept. 21

  And This Only Came After The Politically Conscious People Of Guinea Conakry, Led By A Strong Civil Society, Threatened To No Longer Recognize General MAMADI DOUMBOUYA As President   

In his end of year address to the nation on December 31, 2024, the President of the Transitional Government in Guinea Conakry, General MAMADI DOUMBOUYA, announced that 2025 would be a year of elections in the country, that is, elections to finally return the country to civilian rule.

But General Doumbouya did not willingly make that announcement.  He was rather forced or pushed by a no- nonsense declaration that was made earlier that December 2024 by the politically conscious Guinean people, through their strong civil society organizations and syndicates. The civil society organizations and syndicates jointly declared that the people of Guinea Conakry would from January 1, 2025, no longer recognize General Doumbouya as the President of the country. This, they pointed out,  followed his repeatedly failure to hand back power to civilian rule as he promised to do, when he came to power though a coup d’etat that knocked out the Government of President Alpha Conde. More pressure on General Doumbouya, also came from the Economic Community of West African States, ECOWAS, for the transitional military government to organize elections and hand back power to a civilian rule.

Upon taking over power, General Doumbouya promised the Guinean people that a new Constitution for the country would be adopted by a referendum, after which there would be free, fair and transparent presidential and legislative elections, to return the country to civilian rule. To be precise, General Doumbouya promised the people of Guinea Conakry, that the country would return to civilian rule in two years, that is, 2023.

General Doumbouya Hangs On To Power In 2023 And 2024

But to the surprise of many Guineans, General Doumbouya in May 2022 instead suspended indefinitely the activities of all political parties, whereas he had on coming to power in 2021 said elections to return the country to civilian rule would hold in 2023. He hung on to power in 2023 with flimsy excuses. But in 2024, the Guinean people and ECOWAS started mounting pressure on the unending transitional government to return power to civilian rule.

The pressure got to the climax in early December 2024, when civil society organizations and syndicates in Guinea Conakry jointly declared that the people of Guinea would no longer recognize General Doumbouya as President, as from January 1, 2025. It should be noted that the voices of political parties in Guinea could be heard on   the issue, since the military regime had suspended their activities since May 2022.

Political Parties Resume Activities

Meanwhile in the aforementioned end –of – year address to the nation in the evening of December 31, 2024, General Mamadi Doumbouya who announced that 2025 would be a year of elections, also announced the uplifting of suspension on the activities of political parties.

Work is supposed to have advanced by now on the drafting of the new Constitution of Guinea Conakry, which is expected to be presented at the referendum scheduled by the transition government to hold on September 21, 2025. Political observers would definitely agree that, the fact that it is this year that work is being done to prepare the draft constitution of the country, is a clear indication that General Doumbouya’s regime had no intention to return the country to civilian rule, anytime soon.

As aforementioned, the regime that overthrew a civilian government in 2021, had promised among other things a new Constitution for the country, democratic elections and a return of the country to civilian rule in 2023.  Then imagine that by the end of 2024, the same regime had not even prepared the draft constitution.  This is a clear indication that the regime was not working on a plan to return the country to civilian rule.

Doubts On The Return Of Power To Civilian Rule In 2025

There are even doubts as to whether the regime of General Doumbouya will return the country to civilian rule in 2025, as the President said in his new promise to the Guinean people in his end-of- year address to the nation, in the evening of December 31, 2024. No date has yet been fixed for the presidential and legislative elections. Apparently that will only be done after the referendum that is to hold in late September.

The referendum is scheduled to hold towards the end of the year, and if all goes well, the date for  the presidential and legislative elections would be announced earliest in the month of October. But if unfortunately there is problem with the referendum, the presidential and legislative elections will definitely suffer a long delay.