Vol 4 (AAC) No 4 | 
            - GUINEA
 - CHINA
 
        
        
		
        
        
    
        
	
	      Before leaving office  former Mines and Geology Minister Mahmoud Thiam gave Rio Tinto a February deadline to withdraw from the two blocks that late dictator Lansana Conté had awarded to Beny Steinmetz...
	 
    
    
    
    
        
	
	     After Sékou Touré’s death  Condé returned to see if the new regime under the then Corporal Lansana Conté was serious about its promises to hand over to a democratic government...
	 
    
    
    
    
        
	
	      Mamadou Sylla  one of the richest men in Guinea and a backer of former military leader General Lansana Conté  is also supporting Condé...
	 
    
    
    
    
        
	
	     Contesting are Cellou Dalein Diallo  once Prime Minister under President Lansana Conté  and Alpha Condé  who has always been in opposition...
 If  as seems probable  the eventual winner is Diallo  his opponents may claim that  after the coup and the elections  nothing has changed since the days of Lansana Conté  who died in December 2008...
	 
    
    
    
    
        
	
	     Steinmetz’s firm relies on a shadowy system inherited from President Lansana Conté  who died in December 2008...
	 
    
    
    
    
        
	
	     He was badly tortured under the military regime headed by General Lansana Conté  who died in December 2008...
 Papa Koly Kourouma  a close ally of Dadis who took 5% of the vote  is likely to join Condé  as is Ibrahim Sylla  with 3%  and Ibrahima Kassory Fofana  formerly economy minister under Lansana Conté...
	 
    
    
    
    
        
	
	      Thiam’s mentor is Ibrahima Kassory Fofana  who was once inseparable from Diallo when they both served in Lansana Conté’s military regime but they may have fallen out...
	 
    
    
    
    
        
	
	     Touré’s successor  General Lansana Conté  was from the minority Soussou people (15% of the population) and he gave Peulh some economic privileges  which angered the Malinké...
 Kiridi Bangoura  a former Minister of Territorial Administration and Decentralisation  has discreetly backed Condé  as have other senior survivors of the late Lansana Conté’s regime...
	 
    
    
    
    
        
	
	     They are Alpha Condé  the pugnacious leader of the Rassemblement du Peuple de Guinée (RPG)  and Cellou Dalein Diallo  President of the Union des Forces Démocratiques de Guinée (UFDG) and Prime Minister under the late General Lansana Conté...