Guinean opposition leader Cellou Dalein Diallo on Wednesday said that a blockade of his home, imposed by security forces following tumultuous presidential elections on Oct. 18, had been lifted.
“We discovered on the stroke of noon that we could go in and out. They packed up without warning, in the same way that they had come,” Diallo told reporters.
Police had barricaded the politician in his home in the capital, Conakry, after he declared victory a day after the vote — a claim denied by the government and which led to lethal clashes.
On Tuesday, mediators from the UN, the African Union and the Economic Community of West African States called for the “security measures” around Diallo’s home to be lifted “in the spirit of inclusive dialogue.”
Diallo said that barricades around the headquarters of his Union of Democratic Forces of Guinea party and his offices remained in place.
The security presence in reputedly pro-opposition districts of Conakry was also notably lighter on Wednesday.
“We were surprised this morning to see that the troops deployed in our area had packed up and gone,” said Souleymane Bangoura, a resident of Sonfonia District.
Guinean President Alpha Conde won the hotly contested election according to official results announced on Saturday last week, setting the stage for a controversial third term.
Conde was a former opposition leader who in 2010 became the first democratically elected president of one of Africa’s poorest and most volatile states.
However, he has been accused by critics of authoritarian drift during his second term in office, which he won in 2015.
The US, in line with an EU statement a day earlier, said that it “notes” the announced results, and voiced concern about a lack of transparency and inconsistencies in the vote counting.
“We urge all parties to resolve electoral disputes peacefully through established, non-partisan institutions and inclusive dialogue,” a US embassy statement said.
Washington also urged an immediate investigation into allegations of excessive force following the election.
France, the former colonial power, on Wednesday expressed “concern” and said that doubts about the vote should be “lifted in a transparent manner.”
Conde pushed through a new constitution in March that he argued would modernize the country.
However, it also allowed him to bypass a two-term limit for presidents, arguing that the counter had been reset to zero.
Opposition to that move had provoked mass protests from October last year, in which security forces killed dozens of people.
Conde, who had not been seen in public since election day, visited the military hospital in the capital on Wednesday under the close guard of the “red berets,” an elite military unit.
Accompanied by Guinean Minister of Defence Mohamed Diane and his personal adviser Tibou Camara, Conde spoke with police and gendarmes who had been injured in post-election violence.
Diallo was formerly a prime minister under former Guinean president Lansana Conte and has unsuccessfully challenged Conde in each election the president has contested.
On Monday last week, without waiting for official results, Diallo maintained that data his activists had gathered at individual polling stations showed he had won.
The self-proclaimed win led to unrest that, according to the government, claimed 21 lives, while the political opposition put the toll at more than 27.
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