A prominent Guinean opposition leader
says two years is too long a time to hold elections in Guinea. The new military leaders who took over the
country last week following the death of President Lansana Conte promised civil
society leaders over the weekend that they would hold elections in two years.
Guinea’s
colonial power France, which holds the rotating chair of the European Union,
has reportedly called on the new military rulers to hold elections within six months.
Sydia
Toure, leader of the opposition Union of Republican Forces party told VOA Guinea, being
the poor country it is needs to move quickly toward elections in order to get
the support of international financial institutions.
“We
made a communication Thursday of this declaration to the CNDD (the ruling
National Council for Democracy and Development) telling them that we think that
two years is too long, and we hope that we can have new presidential elections
within one year in Guinea. We are
working on the electoral issues, and we think that if everything can be done
from now to April or May, I think we can have elections in September,” he said.
Toure
said the opposition parties sent their concerns to the new military leadership.
He said the opposition is hoping to meet with junta leaders sometime this week.
He
said the opposition parties made it clear in their statement why Guinea should
have elections as soon as possible.
“After
the coup, there is nothing else left for the country. Guinea is a poor country.
We need to have elections quickly and have a new government so we can go
through the process of the World and the IMF (International Monetary Fund) and
the European Union. We explained to them that it is necessary to go quickly
because this year Guinea will finance all its expenditures by internal
revenue,” he said.
Toure
said the opposition parties support the new military leaders but not if the
military wants to have elections in two years.
“We
support them to have this change, but we don’t support them for two years. We
are supporting them to have new elections for the country, and I think they can
understand that,” Toure said.
Even
though the Guinean opposition is believed to be fragmented, still Toure said
the opposition would be ready for an election by the end of 2009.
Toure
said the opposition parties would like for the international community to
condition any assistance to the new military leadership on it having elections
as soon as possible.
“If this is the case we think that we have to
support. We said to ECOWAS president (Mohamed Ibn Chambas) yesterday. He was in
Conakry. We had a meeting with him. We said if we can go to elections during
2009, we want people to support them,” Toure said.