Background
The Republic of Guinea in West Africa is rich in natural resources, but its people remain poor. Guineans have endured decades of autocratic governance, but they currently have an opportunity to turn a new corner towards a more democratic future. International Alert has worked there for the past few years, helping Guineans seize this opportunity for change and with a particular focus on holding dialogues where people can discuss and envisage practical ways forward.
The way forward will be challenging, and Guineans have been tested by events over the past two years. But sometimes such events also provide opportunities for hope.
The political, economic and security situation in Guinea deteriorated dramatically after a military junta seized power in December 2008 following the death of President Conté. In a particularly bad episode, opposition protests in the capital Conakry in September 2009 were met by violence on the part of security forces. An international commission of inquiry into this incident later reported that 156 people were killed or disappeared, at least 109 women and girls were victims of rape and sexual violence, and thousands of people were wounded.
Subsequently, through a concerted engagement by Guinean and international leaders, the junta leader Captain Camara agreed to step down, to be replaced by a new transitional government, led by a civilian prime minister under the presidency of General Konaté. A new constitution was adopted, and the first round of presidential elections was held in June 2010. This was inconclusive – no candidate received more than 50% of the votes – and so a second round was planned. After several postponements, this was eventually held on 7th November. According to the provisional results, Alpha Condé won with 52.5 %, narrowly beating his rival Cellou Dalein Diallo.
Unfortunately, the second round of the elections was marked by violence, which was also linked to issues of ethnicity. Guinea’s population is roughly split between Peul (about 40%), Mandingo (30%), Sosso (20%) and a mixture of other ethnic groups in the Forestière region (10%). The run-off election came to be seen by many people as an election between Peul vs. Mandingo people, as the two candidates come from these two ethnic groups. Some supporters of both candidates, deeply concerned that they might lose out on opportunities if their candidate were to lose, resorted to intimidation and in some cases to outright violence against supporters of the other candidate – or simply against people of the other ethnicity. Violence was particularly severe after the provisional election results were announced, and although the situation is now calmer, there are fears of more violence when the Supreme Court announces the definitive election result – probably in early December.
Local mediation
This was Guinea’s first ever free democratic election, and as such Alert’s staff in the country had anticipated that existing conflicts and differences within society might be exacerbated. Elections are, after all, intended to be a time when opinions are supposed to be aired and debated, and disagreements are normal. But in a country without democratic traditions, it is all too easy for such debates to get out of hand.
One way we tried to mitigate this risk was by training people to act as local mediators during the elections. The idea was that the mediators could identify local conflicts with the potential to turn violent, and step in to try and avoid this. We were keen for Guineans to have a positive experience of the election, even if their candidate was unsuccessful.
Prior to the elections, we therefore conducted workshops for 115 people in all four regions of the country, in collaboration with Swisspeace and the Independent National Commission for Elections (CENI). During the workshops, we provided training on the constitution, electoral law, theories of conflicts, the electoral cycle, as well as mediation techniques. We used practical training methods, such as role-plays, to allow participants to apply the lessons learnt to realistic scenarios. Trainers from the Electoral Institute of Southern Africa were also invited to share their experiences in other African countries, like Kenya, South Africa and the Democratic Republic of Congo. The mediators were carefully chosen for their political independence, their leadership ability, and their good local standing and influence within the community. At the suggestion of the participants, Alert successfully advocated for their role to be officially recognised, giving them greater confidence and authority to implement their mediation role. Prior to the run-off election, official ceremonies were organised in each region to provide an official seal of approval to the mediators, each of whom was awarded an official authorisation by the Electoral Commission. The mediators also created an informal national mediators’ network, for mutual encouragement and support.
Some initial results
At this stage – just after the run-off election – it is too early to fully evaluate the impact the mediators have had during the elections. We plan to organise a debriefing with them in each region, so they can share experiences and thus improve their capacity prior to the coming legislative elections. Nevertheless, we have already heard some interesting examples of how some of the mediators responded to the challenges thrown up by the election. Here are a few examples, as related to us by some of the mediators from different parts of the country, which illustrate some of the challenges faced and the way the facilitators dealt with them, calming tensions and avoiding small conflicts flaring up into something much harder to control:
‘A militant of Party X who is my neighbour, kicked his daughter out of home because she wore a T-shirt from the other candidate. I intervened to explain that this is not how democracy works. Eventually, he agreed to take her back.’
‘I was able to mediate between two neighbouring families, each of which supported a different candidate, who were fighting after the results were announced. I managed to calm them down to prevent the conflict from escalating’.
‘There was a dispute between the supporters of two different parties about their plans to hold election rallies. Under the plans, there would have been a clash between the two rallies. I worked with the local authorities to help them find a compromise, under which both parties agreed not to hold a rally after all.’
‘The person in charge of one of the polling stations refused to stay open later than originally planned, despite an official radio communiqué requiring him to do so. The people who were still queuing to vote began to shout and insult him. I intervened to calm things, and managed to convince him to compromise, by explaining that there was a risk that his actions would nullify all the votes cast at his polling station – perhaps even all the votes cast in the district.’
‘To avoid a situation in which the leaders of two opposing political parties planned to come from the capital for electioneering on the same day, I helped to negotiate a compromise, and to avoid a confrontation.’
‘At one of the local polling stations, a state security agent threatened the person in charge. This created a really tense situation amongst the people, who were waiting to vote in long queues under the hot sun. I reminded him that his role was to ensure the security of the vote, rather than to threaten the voters and electoral staff, and this helped to calm the people down.’
‘Some people had registered to vote, but hadn’t received their voting cards. They obstructed voting for a period of time at one of the polling stations in town. I persuaded them to stop what they were doing. I also called in the Electoral Commission officials, and together we sat down with them to register their complaints.’
‘I was able to mediate between polling station staff and the people from the Prefecture Electoral Commission, to resolve a difference of opinion about their respective roles in the electoral process.’