Guineans began voting on Sunday to elect their president, four years after a junta led by General Mamadi Doumbouya seized power. Doumbouya was the overwhelming favorite in an election he had promised not to run in and from which the main opposition figures were excluded.

A total of 6.8 million voters are called to vote on Sunday between 07:00 and 18:00 to choose between nine contenders including General Doumbouya, 41, who seems assured of winning in the first round against candidates little known to the general public.

"I am here to fulfill a civic duty that every citizen must fulfill," Collé Camara, a 45-year-old teacher, one of the first voters to come and vote in this election which he hopes will be "calm," told AFP.

Several dozen voters showed up in a continuous stream as soon as the polling stations opened in the Boulbinet district, in downtown Conakry where the head of the junta is to vote.

-Safety device-

A large security presence, including armored vehicles, was deployed across the streets of the capital on Sunday, AFP journalists observed.

Security forces said they had "neutralized" early Saturday in the suburbs of Conakry members of an armed group with "subversive intentions threatening national security".

The opposition has called for a boycott of the election, which is being held more than four years after the September 2021 coup that ousted President Alpha Condé, who had been in power since 2010.

Mr. Condé, along with former Prime Ministers Sidya Touré and Dalein Diallo, all three in exile, were not allowed to run. Mr. Diallo denounced "an electoral charade" aimed at legitimizing "the seizure" of power.

In the absence of the main opposition figures, the presidential election is primarily aimed at "confirming the power of General Doumbouya," Gilles Yabi, director of Wathi, a West African think tank, told AFP.

The UN on Friday deplored an election campaign marred by "intimidation" from members of the opposition.

A pall of repression has descended upon the country, with imprisonments, party suspensions, disappearances and abductions of dissenting voices on the rise.

Under the junta, "Guinea has returned to what it has essentially known since independence in 1958, authoritarian regimes, either civilian or military," Gilles Yabi points out.

Provisional results are expected "within 48 hours" after the vote, according to the General Directorate of Elections (DGE).

The election, along with the elections in the Central African Republic held on the same day, concludes a year rich in elections on the African continent, marked by a rise in authoritarianism and repression of oppositions and the victories of many leaders already in place (Cameroon, Ivory Coast, Tanzania in particular) following votes from which the main opposition figures were excluded.

- Economic performance praised -

One of the main issues on Sunday will be voter turnout, explains political analyst Kabinet Fofana, director of the polling firm Les Sondeurs, in Conakry, to AFP.

At the end of September, Guineans approved a new Constitution in a referendum that the opposition had called for a boycott of, but where participation officially reached 91%.

The new Constitution, which allows members of the junta to run for office, paved the way for Mr. Doumbouya's candidacy. It also extended the presidential term from five to seven years, renewable once.

Unlike his Sahelian neighbors Mali, Burkina Faso or Niger, also military regimes resulting from coups d'état, Mamadi Doumbouya has remained on good terms with France, the former colonial power, and all international partners.

In a video on social media, Mr. Doumbouya highlighted the start of operations in November at the Simandou iron ore deposit (southeast), one of the largest in the world and expected to generate significant revenue.

"The transition has been marked by economic infrastructure work and Guineans are attracted to it. This is an important element highlighted by Doumbouya (but) it says nothing about what governance will be like" after the election, Mr. Yabi points out.

Guinea is rich in minerals but more than half of its inhabitants (52%) live below the poverty line, according to World Bank figures for 2024.