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GUINEA - Election results divide country

Published:Wednesday | November 17, 2010 | 12:00 AM
Guinean police carrying automatic weapons are joined by army forces to patrol the mostly Peul suburb of Bambeto in Conakry, Guinea, yesterday, as groups of UFDG youth set up barricades. - ap

CONAKRY, Guinea (AP):

A day after results from a contentious presidential election were announced, Guinea's capital resembled a divided nation. Neighbourhoods dominated by supporters of the poll's winner, Alpha Conde, had residents dancing in the streets and hanging out of car windows, flashing the V for victory.

Conde, who is ethnically Malinke and who was backed in large numbers by members of his own ethnic group, toured parts of the capital that supported him with a jubilant impromptu parade. But elsewhere in the capital, in areas dominated by members of the Peul ethnic group that supported politician Cellou Dalein Diallo of the same ethnicity, the streets were deserted and littered with bullet casings. Volleys of gunfire continued and security forces, who are mostly Malinke, brandished belts and leather ropes, using them to strike people. Those few who ventured outside were quickly ushered back into their homes.