by NOMI DAVE
The recent election has led to violence and general pandemonium. An explosion of independent journalism offers hope.
As the world’s media focuses on the US elections, we should consider another 2020 ballot, also featuring an unpopular incumbent president, a deeply divided nation, questions about the integrity of the electoral system, and interference from Russia. This is the situation in Guinea, where presidential elections were held on October 18. The results of that vote are still under dispute, as both the sitting president Alpha Condé and the opposition leader Cellou Dalein Diallo have declared victory and the police and military have subsequently rained down violence on protesters.
Local news sources are describing the Guinean situation as “electoral pandemonium.” State authorities have shot and killed dozens of civilians, destroyed houses and private property, and cut off internet services for several days. What happened to the promises of a new democracy that were made only ten years ago?
Guinea has been making uneasy progress towards democratic rule for decades, from a market women’s revolt against Sékou Touré’s economic policies in 1977 to pro-democracy demonstrations in the 2000s and continuing to the present day. While the country has seen a succession of authoritarian leaders since 1959, writers such as Laye Camara and Djibril Tamsir Niane, countless journalists, and everyday citizens have risked their lives and livelihoods to demand change. Social ideals of interdependence and truth to power are rooted in the precolonial Mande empire, and remain at the center of popular debate around leadership and responsibility today.
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