Guinea yearns for changes

GUINEA: Voters in Guinea cast their votes on Sunday in their first chance to elect freely their leadership since the coup-prone West African state won independence from France in 1958.

A smooth election would not only act as a potential trigger for the investment needed to exploit its vast mineral riches and revive its economy, but would boost pro-democracy movements in a region that has seen a string of coups and tainted elections.

Locals are still rubbing their eyes at events since an army massacre of pro-democracy marchers last Sept. 28 brought Guinea close to civil war. Weeks later, junta leader Moussa Dadis Camara was wounded in a gun attack by an aide and his Western-backed successor subsequently pledged to hand rule back to civilians.

"I am going to vote for a citizen who can help Guinea, not someone who will run Guinea like a shop for making money. That is all finished," said fisherman Moussa Drame of a state which is the world's top exporter of the aluminium ore bauxite but where a third of the population of 10 million live in poverty.

Sekouba Konate, the soldier who succeeded Camara as junta leader and who insists he has no interest in political power, told Guineans late on Saturday they were at a turning point.

"I say to Guineans, it's your choice: freedom, peace and democracy, or instability and violence," he told reporters.

Conakry, Sunday, Reuters