Anti-referendum supporters clash with troops

Dozens of opposition supporters have been arrested and at least 10 injured following clashes with Guinean troops while trying to stage a rally in the east of the country, a Guinean opposition source told IRIN.

Guinea's main opposition parties arrived in Kankan on Tuesday on the latest stop of a nation-wide campaign to encourage a boycott of the constitutional referendum scheduled for 11 November, the source said. The rally was not allowed to take place, he added. If approved, Guinea's constitution, which was last amended in 1993, would extend the presidential mandate from five to seven years, allow unlimited terms in office, and not impose a maximum age limit on presidential candidates. It would also allow the president to nominate supreme court judges.

The opposition wants president Lansana Conte to leave office peacefully but it doubts that will be possible as Conte, an army general, controls the troops, the source said. He added that Guineans are fed up with Conte, in power since 1983, and this time it will be "make it or break".