Preparing for Historic Elections in Guinea

On June 27, 2010 Guineans head to the polls to elect a president in the first potentially free and fair elections in the West African country’s history. As a part of a multi-faceted elections preparation strategy, BEFORE, together with International Alert, the Mediation Support Project, a joint venture between swisspeace and the Center for Security Studies (ETH-Zurich), held a series of four workshops across Guinea on the role of mediation within the context of elections. The workshops are mainly financed by the Swiss Federal Department of Foreign Affairs (Political Affairs Division IV, Human Security).

In the last two weeks in May, the workshops are held in four different regions across the country, Conakry, Nzérékoré, Kankan, Labé so that a wide segment of the population and country can benefit from the trainings.

More than 100 people, who could play the very important role of mediators during the elections due to their social and political influence and their bridging function between official authorities and civil society, are spending three days with international, regional and local election-related mediation experts (from International Alert, the Electoral Institute of Southern Africa – EISA and the Swiss Federal Department of Foreign Affairs). The objectives of the workshop are to raise people’s awareness of potential conflicts before, during and after the elections, to explicate the role that mediators can play in their prevention and/or resolution as well as to establish a network of mediators so as to provide conflicting parties with a long-term perspective for Guinea’s future. The participants are also linked up with the National Electoral Commission in order to support conflict prevention during the presidential, legislative and communal elections.

Take action today to learn more about BEFORE’s work in Guinea and to make a contribution to support Guinea’ historic presidential elections.