Border closed ahead of presidential elections

The government has announced it will seal all its land borders from 5 December, a week before presidential elections slated for 14 December, until 20 December, Amadou Diallo, a journalist in Conakry, told IRIN today. He said the government had not given any reason for closing its borders, but it was worried because it was surrounded by three countries in crisis. Guinea was faced with frequent rebel incursions from Sierra Leone causing loss of life and property within its borders. He added that the Guinean Minister of Defence was visiting its troops stationed along its border with Sierra Leone in a bid to boost morale. The government was also concerned about its border with Liberia which had been a “hostile enemy” for a number of years, while it had sent troops into neighbouring Guinea Bissau to support the embattled President Joao Bernardo Vieira. Diallo said all five presidential aspirants were currently campaigning in the rural areas to mobilise the electorate. There had been reports of polling stations not receiving the electoral material while a large number of voters had not received their registration cards. Diallo added that members of the Haut Conseil Superieur Electoral, the electoral commission, were in the interior monitoring electoral preparations.