(Dakar) Guinean Prime Minister Amadou Oury Bah refused on Wednesday to formally commit to a return of civilians to power in 2025 while the departure of the military initially planned for the end of the year has already been postponed.
Amadou Oury Bah affirmed the need to first establish an “indisputable” electoral register even though it has been a source of quarrels in the past, and to organize a constitutional referendum before the end of 2024, like the head of the junta, the General Mamadi Doumbouya, is committed to it according to him.
After the referendum, “everything else can be done in a concerted manner, because the most difficult conditionalities will be behind us from that moment on,” he told Radio France Internationale.
But he repeatedly stopped short of categorically guaranteeing that elections would take place in 2025.
Amadou Oury Bah is almost the only one to speak out on such issues, on which the junta in power since the 2021 coup remains silent.
He said he opposed lifting the ban on six radio and television stations, the latest crackdown on the media imposed by the junta in May.
“I am not at the moment willing to go down this path,” he declared while the censorship of these particularly popular media outlets sparked an outcry.
The head of the government established by the junta also spoke out on the tensions between the Community of West African States (ECOWAS) and the member countries of the Alliance of Sahel States (AES), Mali , Burkina Faso and Niger. These three countries are also led by soldiers who came to power through coups and announced in January their withdrawal from ECOWAS, of which Guinea is also a member.
“The existence of the AES and its integration into ECOWAS are not at all contradictory, and even, they can be complementary,” said Amadou Oury Bah.
