{"id":47697,"date":"2019-10-25T09:44:07","date_gmt":"2019-10-25T01:44:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.namnewsnetwork.org\/?p=47697"},"modified":"2019-10-25T09:44:09","modified_gmt":"2019-10-25T01:44:09","slug":"thousands-in-guinea-march-against-presidents-possible-third-term-bid","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/?p=47697","title":{"rendered":"Thousands in Guinea march against president&#8217;s possible third term bid"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img src=\"https:\/\/pbs.twimg.com\/ext_tw_video_thumb\/1187362716618559493\/pu\/img\/7mo3DQCfWMjsEZBs?format=jpg&amp;name=small\" alt=\"Embedded video\"\/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>CONAKRY, Oct 25 (NNN-AGENCIES) &#8212; Thousands took to the streets of Guinea on Thursday in the largest protest yet over a suspected effort by President Alpha Conde to seek a third term.<br><br>Protesters chanted \u201cAmoulanfe\u201d &#8211; \u201cit will not happen\u201d in the Susu language &#8211; and \u201cFree the prisoners\u201d on their way to the capital Conakry\u2019s largest stadium.<br><br>The march was organized by the National Front for the Defence of the Constitution (FNDC), a coalition of politicians and activists opposed to a constitutional change that could let Conde seek a third term.<br><br>On Tuesday, 12 FNDC leaders were sentenced to up to a year in prison for organizing previous rallies in which nine people were killed. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Organisers said a million people took part in Thursday&#8217;s march, while police put the number at 30,000. Local media said there were hundreds of thousands of people.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Police mobilised in large numbers but the rally remained calm, unlike smaller protests last week in which several protesters were&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/news\/2019\/10\/dead-guinea-protests-constitution-change-191014151252630.html\">killed<\/a>&nbsp;and hospitals were overwhelmed with scores of people wounded by gunshots. The opposition said 10 people died, while the authorities put the toll at eight, plus a gendarme.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Last week, police opened fire on protesters as they ransacked military posts and blocked roads.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Eighty-one-year-old Conde, whose second and final five-year term expires next year, has refused to rule out running again and asked his government last month to look into drafting a new constitution.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>His opponents fear that could be used as a reset button on his presidency, allowing him to run again like other African leaders who have amended or changed constitutions in recent years to stay in power.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Conde\u2019s first election victory in 2010 raised hopes for democratic progress in Guinea after two years of military rule and nearly a quarter of a century under authoritarian President Lansana Conte, who died in 2008.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>But his critics accuse him of cracking down on dissent and violently repressing protests &#8211; charges he denies. &#8212; NNN-AGENCIES<br><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>CONAKRY, Oct 25 (NNN-AGENCIES) &#8212; Thousands took to the streets of Guinea on Thursday in the largest protest yet over a suspected effort by President Alpha Conde to seek a third term. Protesters chanted \u201cAmoulanfe\u201d &#8211; \u201cit will not happen\u201d in the Susu language &#8211; and \u201cFree the prisoners\u201d on their way to the capital [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[213],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47697"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=47697"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47697\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=47697"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=47697"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=47697"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}