Opposition mobilises against third term for Conte

Guinean opposition parties announced on Tuesday the creation of a new movement which aims to prevent the authorities from organising a referendum on a change in the constitution that would allow President Lansana Conte to run for a third term, AFP reported. The Mouvement contre le referendum et pour l’alternance democratique (MRAD) brings together Siradiou Diallo’s l’Union pour le progres et le renouveau, Alpha Conde’s Rassemblement du peuple de Guinee and former prime minister Sidya Toure’s Union des forces republicaines. The MRAD aims to galvanise all members of the population to oppose the referendum, whose result, it says, is already known. Conte was inaugurated as president in 1994 after 10 years as Guinea’s military leader following a bloodless coup d’etat in 1984. He was re-elected in 1999 for a second term of five years which, under the present constitution, would be his last, AFP said.