Today, in Guinea, the National Assizes begin. An appointment that will bring together the members of the transition with a priority objective: to establish a "new institutional framework".
Announced for three months, the National Assizes in Guinea begin this Tuesday. These should make it possible, according to the President of the Transition, to initiate a process of “reconciliation”. Days of "forgiveness and truth" launched by Colonel Mamadi Doumbouya in person.
While Guinean news was marked by the leak of an audio recording, in which we hear Alpha Condé, the president overthrown in September 2021, affirm that "in Guinea, things are going to be very bad" and call on his supporters to put themselves in battle order, and after the questions about the duration of the transition, these meetings are timely to put Doumbouya and his men back in the spotlight.
This is also what the opposition to the National Transition Council (CNT) criticizes: wanting to create a diversion to make people forget the leaked chronogram, which announced a Guinean transition that could last up to three years.
Political maneuver or real desire to change? These Guinean Assizes look in any case to be mistaken for the Anational refoundation meetings in Mali. At the time, Malian President Assimi Goïta relied on the results of the consultations to announce the extension of the five-year transition period.
Reconciliation at the center of discussions
Problem: the government decided to bring forward the Assizes and rushed to prepare for this meeting. Still, on the eve of the opening of the National Assizes, no one knew the program of discussions. The Minister of Territorial Administration and Decentralization, which is organizing the event, announces that "theThe terms of reference and the activities will be announced during the launch” and “reserves the communication of the timetable of the Assises to the national commission responsible for leading and coordinating the debates”.
Something to irritate NGOs and civil society. A dozen organizations reported having “legitimate fears as to the success of a true and sincere reconciliation through the National Conference”. Because these NGOs do not wish “to serve as a guarantee by associating us with events with undefined and imprecise objectives”, they have set conditions before agreeing to participate in this Assizes which will last a month.
The opposition, like Sékou Kouréissy Condé, is not hostile to the organization of the Assizes, but he assures that there is an obvious "lack of preparation" on the part of the power in place. It is, according to civil society, a bit of a blur: some personalities did not know, even yesterday, if they were invited or not.
Be that as it may, at the end of this Assizes, it could well be a disappointment for observers. Because if the program is not known, the discussions should revolve around reconciliation more than around the transition. It will therefore be a question in particular of the mandates of Alpha Condé but also of the predecessors of the latter.