Guinea Guinea ( ),, fuf, 𞤘𞤭𞤲𞤫, italic=no, Gine, wo, Gine, nqo, ߖߌ߬ߣߍ߫, bm, Gine officially the Republic of Guinea (french: République de Guinée), is a coastal country in West Africa. It borders the Atlantic Ocean to the we ...

elects on the national level a

head of state A head of state (or chief of state) is the public persona who officially embodies a state Foakes, pp. 110–11 " he head of statebeing an embodiment of the State itself or representatitve of its international persona." in its unity and l ...

—the

president President most commonly refers to: *President (corporate title) *President (education), a leader of a college or university *President (government title) President may also refer to: Automobiles * Nissan President, a 1966–2010 Japanese ful ...

—and a

legislature A legislature is an assembly with the authority to make law Law is a set of rules that are created and are enforceable by social or governmental institutions to regulate behavior,Robertson, ''Crimes against humanity'', 90. with its p ...

. The president is elected for a five-year term by the people through a

two-round system The two-round system (TRS), also known as runoff voting, second ballot, or ballotage, is a voting method used to elect a single candidate, where voters cast a single vote for their preferred candidate. It generally ensures a majoritarian resul ...

(i.e. if no candidate secures a majority of the votes, there is a runoff between the top two vote-getters). The

National Assembly In politics, a national assembly is either a unicameral legislature, the lower house of a bicameral legislature, or both houses of a bicameral legislature together. In the English language it generally means "an assembly composed of the repre ...

(''Assemblée Nationale'') has 114 members, elected for five-year terms, 38 members in single-seat

constituencies An electoral district, also known as an election district, legislative district, voting district, constituency, riding, ward, division, or (election) precinct is a subdivision of a larger state (a country, administrative region, or other polity ...

and 76 members by

proportional representation Proportional representation (PR) refers to a type of electoral system under which subgroups of an electorate are reflected proportionately in the elected body. The concept applies mainly to geographical (e.g. states, regions) and political divis ...

. Voters must be at least 18 years old and Guinean citizens in full possession of civil and political rights. Candidates must be at 18, either Guinean by citizenship or naturalized and resident in the country for at least 10 years. There are also various disqualifications.

History

When Guinea gained its independence from France in 1958,

Ahmed Sékou Touré Ahmed Sékou Touré (var. Sheku Turay or Ture; N'Ko: ; January 9, 1922 – March 26, 1984) was a Guinean political leader and African statesman who became the first president of Guinea, serving from 1958 until his death in 1984. Touré was am ...

became its first president, as his ''Parti démocratique de Guinée'' (DPG, Democratic Party of Guinea) had won 56 of 60 seats in the 1957 Territorial Assembly election. By 1960, he had declared the DPG the only legal party, so, for the next 24 years, all the voters could do was elect the DPG candidates to the National Assembly, while Touré ran unopposed for the presidency three more times. After Touré's death in 1984, Colonels

Lansana Conté Lansana Conté (30 November 1934 – 22 December 2008

and

Diarra Traoré Diarra Traoré (1935 – 8 July 1985) was a Guinean soldier and politician. He served as Prime Minister of Guinea briefly in 1984 as a member of a junta led by Lansana Conté. In 1985, after Traoré attempted a coup d'état against President C ...

seized power in a bloodless

coup d'état A coup d'état (; French for 'stroke of state'), also known as a coup or overthrow, is a seizure and removal of a government and its powers. Typically, it is an illegal seizure of power by a political faction, politician, cult, rebel group, m ...

, with Conté assuming the presidency. In December 1990, a new constitution created a

unicameral Unicameralism (from ''uni''- "one" + Latin ''camera'' "chamber") is a type of legislature, which consists of one house or assembly, that legislates and votes as one. Unicameral legislatures exist when there is no widely perceived need for multic ...

Parliament. In April 1992, legislation was passed making Guinea a

multi-party state In political science, a multi-party system is a political system in which multiple political parties across the political spectrum run for national elections, and all have the capacity to gain control of government offices, separately or in c ...

. The following year, Conté announced a return to civilian rule, with Guinea's first multi-party presidential election taking place in 1993, followed by a legislative election in 1995. Conté remained president, with 51.7% of the vote, while his

Party of Unity and Progress The Unity and Progress Party (french: Parti de l'Unité et du Progrès, PUP) is a political party in Guinea. It was the ruling party during the long rule of President Lansana Conté. In terms of ideology, the PUP advocates the unity of Guineans a ...

(PUP, ''Parti de l'Unité et du Progrès'') won 71 of the 114 seats in the Assembly. He was re-elected president in

1998 1998 was designated as the ''International Year of the Ocean''. Events January * January 6 – The '' Lunar Prospector'' spacecraft is launched into orbit around the Moon, and later finds evidence for frozen water, in soil in permanently ...

, with 56.1% of the vote, and

2003 File:2003 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: The crew of STS-107 perished when the Space Shuttle Columbia disintegrated during reentry into Earth's atmosphere; SARS became an epidemic in China, and was a precursor to SARS-CoV-2; A des ...

, with 95.6% of the vote after all the major opposition leaders boycotted the election. His party also won 85 seats in the Assembly in

2002 File:2002 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 2002 Winter Olympics are held in Salt Lake City; Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother and her daughter Princess Margaret, Countess of Snowdon die; East Timor gains East Timor independence, indepe ...

, with some opposition parties choosing to boycott. Shortly after Conté's death in December 2008,

Moussa Dadis Camara Captain Moussa Dadis Camara (; born 1 January 1964), now called Moïse Dadis Camara (),''Le Populaire'', , N°3232, 31 August 2010, p. 2 is an ex-officer of the Guinean army who served as the President of Guinea from 23 December 2008 to 15 Janu ...

seized power. In December 2009, Camara was shot in the head in an assassination attempt and left the country to obtain medical care. The following month, Camara agreed to a return to civilian rule. No candidate won a majority of the votes in the first round of the 2010 presidential election, so

Cellou Dalein Diallo Cellou Dalein Diallo (3 February 1952
, Xinhua, 14 December 2004 .) is a

Alpha Condé Alpha Condé (N'Ko: ; born 4 March 1938) is a Guinean politician who served as the fourth president of Guinea from 2010 to 2021. Condé spent decades in opposition to a succession of regimes in Guinea, unsuccessfully running against President La ...

, the top vote-getters (with 43.69% and 18.25%, respectively), contested a second round, which was delayed several times. Condé finally emerged victorious, with 52.54% of the ballots. His

Guinean People's Assembly The Rally of the Guinean People (french: Rassemblement du Peuple Guinéen, sometimes translated as ''Guinean People's Assembly''; RPG) is a political party in Guinea. The RPG was the ruling party in the country from 2010 to 2021 and was recentl ...

party (RPG, ''Rassemblement du Peuple Guinéen'') took 53 of the 114 Assembly seats in the repeatedly delayed 2013 election, and seven seats won by allies gave the RPG a majority. He himself was re-elected in

2015 File:2015 Events Collage new.png, From top left, clockwise: Civil service in remembrance of November 2015 Paris attacks; Germanwings Flight 9525 was purposely crashed into the French Alps; the rubble of residences in Kathmandu following the Apri ...

Latest elections

2015 presidential election

Alpha Condé is re-elected.

2020 legislative election

The elections were boycotted by the main opposition parties. As a result, President Condé's party won a supermajority of seats.

Election commission

The

Independent National Electoral Commission The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) was established in 1998 and is the electoral body which oversees elections in Nigeria. History Regulation and administration of elections The administration of democratic elections in Nige ...

(french: Commission Electorale Nationale Indépendante, CENI) is the

election commission An election commission is a body charged with overseeing the implementation of electioneering process of any country. The formal names of election commissions vary from jurisdiction to jurisdiction, and may be styled an electoral commission, a c ...

in Guinea. The body was established in November 2007.

References

External links

Adam Carr's Election Archive
{{Guinea topics