No member of the military junta can contest in Guinea election – ECOWAS

ECOWAS has given the military junta in Guinea six months to return the country to democratic rule after the September 5 ousting of President Alpha Condé.

The members of the junta, who are under the banner of the National Committee for Reconciliation and Development (CNRD), have also been slapped with travel bans.

They have also had their financial assets frozen, according to ECOWAS’ communique issued after the Extraordinary Summit held in Accra on Thursday.

ECOWAS called on the African Union, the European Union, the United Nations, and other multilateral and bilateral partners to support the implementation of these sanctions.

The summit took into consideration a report by the high-level Mission dispatched to the Republic of Guinea on 10 September 2021.

The West Africa regional bloc also stressed that no member of the CNRD be allowed to contest in the presidential election if Guinea is returned to democratic rule.

The constitutional change in Guinea allowed Mr. Condé to successfully run for a controversial third term in 2019.

Before 2010, when he was first elected into office, and was a long-time opposition leader.

The constitutional change has been noted as one of the reasons for the military take-over.

After gunfire in Guinea’s capital, a group of soldiers announced the dissolution of the constitution, the closure of the borders and a nationwide curfew in a broadcast on state TV on Sunday evening.

The soldiers, led by a Special Forces Colonel, Mamady Doumbouya, had said regional governors had been replaced by military commanders and that Mr. Condé was under arrest.

The UN, African Union, and ECOWAS have condemned the coup and called for a return to civilian rule.

The coup in Guinea was the fourth attempted coup in West Africa in the last year with two military takeovers in Mali and a failed coup in Niger.