Violence mars build up to Guinean elections

Despite a suspicious track record in a number of dodgy African elections, it has emerged that the Republic of Guinea has again opted to contract the South African firm Waymark Infotech to draw up the country’s list of registered voters ahead of the May elections. Not only is the company suspected of past irregular behaviour in Guinea, its poor track record reportedly extends to Zanzibar, Congo and Cameroon, according to the company’s Wikipedia page (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waymark_Infotech - worth a look for any interested readers). Additionally, it is documented that President Alpha Condé’s son used to work for the firm.

This decision to contract Waymark has contributed hugely to the pre-election violence we have seen marring the West African republic this last week; earlier last week, the Guinean opposition coalition announced that it would withdraw from the election process due, primarily due to concerns that Waymark was again being used for voter registration purposes. A member of the Executive Committee of the Union of Democratic Forces of Guinea revealed to the press recently that the opposition had asked experts from a Francophone organisation to assess Waymark’s transparency, who promptly concluded that Waymark was “not ready” to organise the voter list.

Original article: http://www.voanews.com/content/guinea-election-opposition-boycott/1610067.html