Diallo's alliance suspends strike in Guinea
The alliance backing presidential contender Cellou Dalein Diallo is calling off a strike on Monday, initially scheduled to protest the arrest of around 200 of Diallo’s young supporters during last weekend's violence.
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“Our leaders have just decided to suspend the strike tomorrow,” says Falah Millimono, a spokesperson for the alliance backing presidential candidate Cellou Dalein Diallo. “We have seen some signs of improvements,” says Millimono, referring to negotiations to obtain the release of young supporters arrested during clashes last weekend.
However Millimono says he does not know how many supporters have or will be released.
The second round vote of Guinea's presidential elections was postponed after clashes last weekend in Conakry between supporters of the two candidates left one person dead and 50 injured.
Diallo's Union of Democratic Forces of Guinea had threatened a strike on Monday to protest the arrest of around 200 young party supporters in the wake of the clashes.
On Saturday, a top UN envoy arrived in Guinea at the head of an international delegation for talks with key players in the crisis over the suspended presidential election.
Said Djinnit, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon's special representative for West Africa, led members of the International Contact Group for Guinea into talks with election officials and political leaders on Saturday.
They were scheduled to meet the country's interim president General Sekouba Konate and the two presidential candidates, Diallo and Alpha Conde, in a bid to fix a new date for the vote.
Veteran opposition leader Conde said the July first-round result, in which Diallo won 44 percent of the vote to his 18 percent, was fraudulent, and blamed the electoral commission.
But both candidates have called for the election to take place as soon as possible
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