Conakry – Guinea’s once-ruling RPG party on Thursday was preparing steps to replace former president Alpha Conde after he was ousted last September in a military coup.
An extraordinary assembly gathering 368 members of Conde’s Rally of the People of Guinea (RPG) was to meet in the capital Conakry.
It will appoint a provisional executive council ahead of a congress, likely to be held before the end of the year, that will name a successor to him.
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Conde became in 2010 Guinea’s first democratically elected president.
But the 83-year-old was deposed by army officers last year amid fierce protests over his successful bid for a third term in office a plan that critics said breached the constitution.
Conde was allowed to leave Guinea in January, officially for medical care in the United Arab Emirates, but his figure still looms large at home.
The RPG was buffeted last month after its leaders put forward Ibrahima Kassory Fofana, who served as prime minister under Conde from May 2018 until the coup, to head the provisional executive council.
Fofana, a member of the Susu ethnic group, is the first person to head an RPG executive who does not hail from the Malinke community a major change in a country where political affiliations are typically aligned with ethnicity.
A recent audio message attributed to Conde called for the party to prepare for serious deterioration in the country as the cost of living soars.
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The recording also urged the RPG to adopt a collegiate leadership and prevent Conde’s perennial opponent Cellou Dalein Diallo from taking advantage of the worsening social situation.
A “motion of thanks” to Conde was expected to be read at Thursday’s meeting, which would also declare that a new generation has been “handed the baton”.
Several former leaders of the RPG are being targeted in anti-corruption investigations launched by the junta.
The leader of the coup, Colonel Mamady Doumbouya, had himself sworn in as president last October.
He has promised to restore civilian rule, but so far resisted to committing to a date.
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Source: AFP
Picture: Getty Images
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