Conakry – Exiled Guinean opposition leader Cellou Dalein Diallo told AFP on Thursday he would file a complaint to the West African bloc ECOWAS’s courts for having been excluded from running in next month’s presidential election.
The election was intended to restore constitutional order following the 2021 coup but junta leader General Mamady Doumbouya will be among the candidates, despite promises to return power to civilians.
“I have instructed my lawyers to file a complaint with the ECOWAS Court of Justice against the Guinean State, which arbitrarily refused my registration in the Guinean electoral register,” Diallo told AFP.
Guineans adopted a new constitution in a September referendum, which introduced a provision requiring presidential candidates to have their primary residence in the country — effectively excluding Diallo, who is in exile between Dakar and Abidjan.
Despite vowing not to do so, Guinea’s junta leader Mamady Doumbouya has put his name forward to stand in presidential elections on December 28 – a move that could keep him in power for another five years https://t.co/V0yeDE0x2g pic.twitter.com/ZMFXShKfsq
— Reuters (@Reuters) November 4, 2025
“No one is unaware of the reasons why the Guinean authorities made this unjust and illegal decision to exclude me from the register and therefore from electoral competitions,” Diallo said.
Diallo’s party, the Union of Democratic Forces of Guinea (UFDG), along with other opposition parties was suspended at the end of August by Guinean authorities.
“No one can ignore the current drift in Guinea and the reduction of fundamental rights. Our client saw his house demolished by the ruling junta,” Diallo’s lawyer Vincent Brengarth said on Thursday, adding the opposition leader fears for his life.
“We have approached ECOWAS because we believe that appeals to domestic courts have no chance of succeeding,” he added.
ECOWAS Court of Justice spokesperson, Elohor Ovadje, told AFP that she could not comment on whether the court would issue a ruling on this complaint before the presidential election on December 28.
The court also does not have a mechanism to enforce its decisions.
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Source: AFP
