Two people were killed and at least 33 were wounded in Guinea on Friday in clashes between supporters of President Alpha Conde and his main rival before Sunday’s election, witnesses and a senior police source said.
Shots were fired, security forces fired teargas and wielded batons outside the house of Conde’s rival, Cellou Dalein Diallo, in the capital, while activists armed with stones and clubs roamed the streets, reducing traffic to a minimum, they said.
Eighteen of those wounded were members of the security forces, state television said. There were also clashes in Kerouane and Kissidougou in the southeast of the country, a government source said.
It was not immediately clear what triggered the clashes, but Conde on Thursday rejected a demand by opposition candidates to postpone the vote to allow time to rectify what they said were irregularities in the process.
Late on Friday, the constitutional court, which is the election’s highest authority, also rejected a request by seven opposition leaders who had argued that the election should be postponed by at least a week to rectify irregularities.
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