Within the next couple of hours preliminary results from Guinea’s election should finally be known. But instead of being a time for celebration tensions have risen to the boiling point. Clashes between protesters and security officials have resulted in at least one death. Politicians have the opportunity to step in and try to quell violence simply by asking their supporters for calm and entreating them to accept the results, however they may end up. Instead I expect we’ll see grandstanding, which will allow outside observers to categorize Guinea as just another country torn asunder by the politics of ethnicity, a simplified narrative that misses out on the political realities.
