1993 Presidential Election

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Party Politics and the electoral process
The 1993 Presidential Election


International Republican Institute
Guinea: Presidential Election Report
19 December 1993

Washington, DC. 1995. 25 p.


IRI Assessment of Electoral Environment
For 19 December Presidential Elections

The International Republican Institute (IRI), a U S.-based non-governmental organization that promotes democracy worldwide, has determined after an extended assessment of the electoral environment in Guinea that it is not possible at this time to hold an open, transparent and meaningful Presidential election.

Now that the members of the National Electoral Commission (CNE) have been sworn in, they must be allowed to immediately take up their mandated role as the « moral » guarantors of transparency for the electoral process. In the short amount of time remaining until the election, the IRI strongly recommends that the CNE should ensure that:

  1. undue omissions of voters are minimized by the government and political parties working together to examine electoral lists for accuracy at the district and quartier levels as required by Article L18;
  2. the government and political parties work cooperatively to distribute elector’s cards equitably as required by Articles L37, L38 end R22;
  3. the issue of voters displaced by ethnic tension is addressed in a manner that preserves the principle of openness in the spirit of Article L32;
  4. the government produce a writ providing clarification of procedures at the polling place that are not specifically covered in the existing electoral law and make this document available to government electoral officials and political party representatives at all polling places to avoid confusion on election day, and
  5. the list of polling stations is examined for anomalies and that the revised list is communicated to as many voters as possible prior to election day, although the time frame required by Article L71 already has been unduly shortened.

To make it possible to properly address these issues, the IRI calls upon the CNE to recommend a postponement of the 19 December election. It is vital that the issues mentioned previously are resolved prior to this election. Otherwise, it will not conform to either internationally-accepted electoral standards or Guinea electoral law.

Conakry, 10 December 1993