PANAPRESS
Panafrican News Agency
Eleven African presidents, dignitaries attend inauguration of Condé
Conakry, Guinea (PANA) – Eleven African presidents, dignitaries across the world, local politicians and important personalities on Tuesday attended the inauguration of Guinea’s newly elected president, Alpha Condé.
The 72-year-old veteran opposition leader was sworn at the Salle des Fêtes of the People’s Palace (Parliament) as the first democratically-elected leader since independence in the West African country.
President Condé, leader of the Guinean Rally for People (RPG) and candidate of the alliance "Arc-en-ciel" made up of 116 political parties, will serve a five-year term, renewable once.
He was sworn in by the chairman of the supreme court, Mamadou "Syma" Sylla, the man who had sentenced him in 2000 to five years' imprisonment for "breach of national security" before he was granted amnesty in 2002 by the late President Lansana Conté.
The presidents of South Africa, Burkina Faso, Liberia, Sierra Leone, Niger, Senegal, Mali, Guinea Bissau, Cape Verde, Togo and Angola, as well as the former Nigerian president Olesegun Obasanjo attended the ceremony.
Conspicuously absent was Cellou Dalein Diallo, the man President Condé defeated in the second round, who is presently outside the country.
The chairman of the African Union Commission, Jean Ping, the UN deputy secretary-general, Asha Rosa Migro, and the former French foreign affairs minister, Bernard Kouchner, who was the special guest and fellow student of President Condé, also attended the ceremony.
The new president, elected with 52.52% of the votes, against Diallo's 47.48%) took over from junta leader, General Sékouba Konaté, who replaced Moussa Dadis Camara. Camara who survived an assassination attempt in December 2009 now lives Burkina Faso.
Camara had seized power in December 2008, shortly after the death of President Lansana Conté, who seized power in 1984 following the death in the US of the country’s first President Ahmed Sékou Touré.
President Condé, who would soon appoint a Prime minister, has said he will personally be in charge of the Defence ministry.
A chairman of the Federation of Black African Students in France (FEANF) in the 60s and former teacher of public Law at Sorbonne University in Paris, the new Guinean president has warned during several meetings that he would spend his first five-year term tackling corruption, embezzlement.
-0- PANA AC/ SSB/IBA/MSA/MA 21Dec2010
The 72-year-old veteran opposition leader was sworn at the Salle des Fêtes of the People’s Palace (Parliament) as the first democratically-elected leader since independence in the West African country.
President Condé, leader of the Guinean Rally for People (RPG) and candidate of the alliance "Arc-en-ciel" made up of 116 political parties, will serve a five-year term, renewable once.
He was sworn in by the chairman of the supreme court, Mamadou "Syma" Sylla, the man who had sentenced him in 2000 to five years' imprisonment for "breach of national security" before he was granted amnesty in 2002 by the late President Lansana Conté.
The presidents of South Africa, Burkina Faso, Liberia, Sierra Leone, Niger, Senegal, Mali, Guinea Bissau, Cape Verde, Togo and Angola, as well as the former Nigerian president Olesegun Obasanjo attended the ceremony.
Conspicuously absent was Cellou Dalein Diallo, the man President Condé defeated in the second round, who is presently outside the country.
The chairman of the African Union Commission, Jean Ping, the UN deputy secretary-general, Asha Rosa Migro, and the former French foreign affairs minister, Bernard Kouchner, who was the special guest and fellow student of President Condé, also attended the ceremony.
The new president, elected with 52.52% of the votes, against Diallo's 47.48%) took over from junta leader, General Sékouba Konaté, who replaced Moussa Dadis Camara. Camara who survived an assassination attempt in December 2009 now lives Burkina Faso.
Camara had seized power in December 2008, shortly after the death of President Lansana Conté, who seized power in 1984 following the death in the US of the country’s first President Ahmed Sékou Touré.
President Condé, who would soon appoint a Prime minister, has said he will personally be in charge of the Defence ministry.
A chairman of the Federation of Black African Students in France (FEANF) in the 60s and former teacher of public Law at Sorbonne University in Paris, the new Guinean president has warned during several meetings that he would spend his first five-year term tackling corruption, embezzlement.
-0- PANA AC/ SSB/IBA/MSA/MA 21Dec2010
