Guinea: Democracy Delayed Once More

Guinea’s military junta is dragging its feet on the transition to democracy. In charge since September 2021, the military has repeatedly delayed plans to hand over power. Now it’s missed yet another deadline.

A process leading to elections in early 2025 was supposed to begin on New Year’s Day. But the day came and went with no progress . All that happened was a vague promise by the junta’s leader, Colonel Mamadi Doumbouya, to sign a decree for a constitutional referendum, to be held at an unspecified date.

This latest failure sparked protests in early January, with people taking to the streets in defiance of a blanket protest ban. Protesters brought parts of the capital, Conakry, to a standstill. They were met with state repression. Hundreds of protesters, mostly young people, were reportedly arrested and one person was killed.

Junta cracks down

The latest delayed transition plan was agreed in October 2022 following over a year of negotiations between the junta and the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), the main regional intergovernmental body. The junta had wanted an even longer transition, and now it’s got its way by simply ignoring the agreement it signed. Its Transitional Charter says the length of the transition period should be agreed with key social and political groups, but it’s repeatedly acted unilaterally.

The military initially enjoyed some popularity for deposing President Alpha Conde after he changed the constitution to secure a third term. It has since maintained its grip by repressing those who speak out against it. The Transitional Charter states that core freedoms, including freedom of assembly, will be guaranteed. But in May 2022, the junta announced that protests deemed ‘likely to compromise social tranquillity’ or prevent the implementation of the military’s supposed timetable would be banned until the start of the election campaign – a moment that still hasn’t arrived.

As well as suppressing demonstrations for democracy, the authorities have used violence against protests on other issues. Police fired teargas and arrested people demanding rehousing following an oil depot explosion in March 2024 and shot dead two children during a protest against power cuts that same month.

Those calling for democracy are in danger. In July 2024, the authorities arrested and detained two civil society leaders, Mamadou Billo Bah and Oumar Sylla of the National Front for the Defence of the Constitution, a movement that defends constitutional rights and freedoms. The two were reportedly taken to an island off the coast of mainland Guinea for detention.

Opposition leader Aliou Bah was sentenced to two-years in prison in January 2025 for ‘insulting and defaming’ Doumbouya; he’d called for religious leaders to speak out for democracy and described the military government as ‘incompetent’. In addition, in 2024 the junta suspended or dissolved over 50 political parties, and announced it would investigate more than 60 other groups, including two major opposition political parties.

The authorities are also attacking media freedoms . In April 2024, the media authority suspended the news website Inquisiteur and one of its journalists for six months, evidently in retaliation for reporting on corruption. In January 2025, it suspended the news website Dépêche Guinée indefinitely for publishing an opinion piece it claimed incited insurrection and public order disturbance. Previously, in 2024, it suspended Dépêche Guinée for nine months and its publishing director, Abdoul Latif Diallo, for six months over allegations of defamation, in response to reporting on corruption, with similar suspensions in 2023.

Other journalists and websites have been suspended, and websites and social media platforms have been blocked or had access restrictions imposed. In May 2023, the government revoked the licences of six media outlets. Journalists have also been arrested for protesting against restrictions on their freedoms, and Sékou Jamal Pendessa, general secretary of the Union of Press Professionals of Guinea, has received several threats for criticising the junta. He was arrested and detained for over a month in connection with a protest on media freedoms in January 2024. The following month, security forces killed two people protesting against his detention.

The junta has made it clear time and again that it will act as it sees fit. In February 2024, it dissolved the transitional government, seized the passports and froze the bank accounts of former ministers and temporarily sealed the country’s borders, without offering any explanation. The move, which underlined that the military retains real power regardless of whatever transitional authority it puts in place, came after a nationwide strike in protest at high food prices in which two people were killed.

Time for action

Guinea was the first domino to fall in a wave of coups that spread across Africa to form a ‘coup belt’ running coast to coast, with Burkina Faso , Chad , Mali , Niger and Sudan now under military rule, along with Gabon to the south. In country after country, the military has consolidated its power rather than handing it back to civilians. There have been no recent transitions back to democracy, and attacks on civil society and independent media have increased.

As the country that has been under military rule the longest, Guinea should be under the greatest pressure to finally return to democracy. The longer the delay, the greater the danger. The more time the junta buys, rigging the playing field in its favour, the less likely it is that an eventual election and handover to civilian rule will lead to democracy and a government that stands up to the military. The junta’s actions to shut down the opposition, jail dissenters and violently suppress protests suggest that’s exactly the plan.

The Guinean junta must face increased pressure to move forward with the transition. ECOWAS, the African Union and the wider international community must do all they can to urge the junta to hold free and fair elections to restore democratic rule. This would be a step forward, both for people in Guinea, and to set an example for the other countries that make up Africa’s ‘coup belt’.

*Andrew Firmin is CIVICUS Editor-in-Chief, co-director and writer for CIVICUS Lens and co-author of the State of Civil Society Report .

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