Colonel Mamady Doumbouya is sworn in as interim president of Guinea after leading his troops to overthrow President Alpha Conde on September 5th. The Supreme Court’s Mamadou Sylla swore in the military junta for an unspecified period.
The ceremony was held at the Mohammed-V palace in Conakry on the eve of a public holiday commemorating the country’s declaration of independence from France in 1958.
Colonel Mamady promised to uphold the West African country’s international commitments while transitioning to civilian rule. Neither he nor any other member of the military government would run in future elections.
The military junta stated that the mission of his administration was to refound the state by fighting corruption, reforming the electoral system, and organizing free, credible, and transparent elections. Colonel Mamady Doumbouya had nothing to say about how long he would be Guinea’s interim leader.
According to the military government’s Charter, the military junta will serve as a transitional president until the country returns to civilian rule.
It further states that the transitional president will be “head of state and supreme chief of the armed forces… (and) determine the policies of the Nation,” with the power to name and fire an interim prime minister.
However, the document stated the president would be barred from being a candidate at the elections that would take place after the transition.
The turmoil in Guinea alarmed the country’s neighbors. The region’s bloc, the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), demanded that elections be held in the country within six months of Alpha Conde’s release.
The military junta will be the next Guinean president after Alpha Conde became the country’s first democratically elected president in 2010, 2015, and 2020. Alpha Conde pushed through a contentious new constitution that allowed him to run for a third time. This incident sparked a protest, which resulted in the deaths of several protestors.
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