The transitional assembly in Guinea, which is tasked with organizing a return to civilian rule after the military overthrow last year of President Alpha Conde, held its first session Saturday.
All 81 members of the national transitional council, known by its French acronym CNT, were present for the inaugural session in parliament buildings in the capital Conakry, AFP journalists noted.
The session lasted several hours and was opened by CNT president Dansa Kourouma, and in the presence of transitional prime minister Mohamed Beavogui, a development expert.
“The radical change in the mechanisms that bring elites to power and allows them to remain in power almost indefinitely (is a problem that) must be definitively resolved,” Kourouma said in his speech.
He called for a constitution to be drawn up “that will not be easily modified”, a reference to Conde, who had sparked fury by changing the constitution in order to run for a third term.
“Our path will be strewn with all sorts of pitfalls that we are called upon to overcome from now on, until the installation of the future National Assembly, at the end of credible and transparent elections that will be organized to put an end to the transition,” Kourouma added.
Conde, who was Guinea’s first democratically elected president and had been in power since 2010, was deposed on September 5 last year at the age of 83.
