Guinean opposition leader Alpha Condé has achieved an extraordinary comeback to win the second round of the country's presidential elections.
After winning a dismal 18 percent of votes in the first round of the election - against former prime minister Cellou Dalein Diallo's 43 percent - Condé's turnaround strategy saw him beat his rival with 52,52 percent of the vote. Diallo won 47.48 percent.
Conditions changed dramatically in the four months between the first and second rounds, a period during which Condé fought tooth and nail to obtain a more transparent and credible electoral commission.
Radio France Internationale reports that on the political front, he formed alliances with 16 parties which lost in the first round, enabling him to win in three of the four regions in the country and in four of the five communes in the capital, Conakry.
Diallo for his part has accused Condé of fraud and irregularities. He feels cheated and says he intends to petition the Supreme Court for a re-examination of the electoral exercise.
Condemned to death by Guinea's founding president, Sekou Touré, and imprisoned for two years by former leader Lansana Conté, Alpha Condé, 72, has finally achieved what he has been fighting for for nearly 40 years in the main opposition party.
He made three previous runs for president but this year's is regarded as the first truly democratic and transparent election, reports RFI.
Tensions were rife in Conakry in the build-up yesterday's announcment of the second-round results. It reached boiling point after the result was made public, with one person reported dead, killed by law enforcement officers, at Diallo's stronghold in Conakry. 65 were reported injured in the capital and in other towns around the country.
Condé's Arc-en-Ciel alliance has called for calm through its spokesperson, François Fall, while the international community has greeted the quality of the elections with approval and has called for the parties to respect the vedict.
Report by Michael Tantoh, incorporating reporting by RFI.
