Guinea election set for September

Guinea election set for September

CONAKRY, Guinea — A government spokesman announced that the second round of Guinea’s presidential election will be held on Sept. 19.

The presidential decree read out on state TV by presidential spokesman Mohamed Kasse ends weeks of speculation and political wrangling following the June 27 first round of the presidential vote.

The top candidate Cellou Dalein Diallo got 44 percent of the vote, shy of the majority needed to avoid a runoff. The election results needed to be confirmed by the courts, but once they were confirmed in July, candidates accused the transitional government of dragging its feet and not announcing the date of the second round in a vain attempt to hold onto power.

Guinea has survived decades of dictatorship, including most recently the one-year rule of an eccentric army captain whose forces led a massacre of hundreds of people.