2023-12-22 09:40:41
Came to power the day following the death of Sekou Touré Thanks to a coup d’état on April 3, 1984, Lansana Conté remained almost unshakeable at the head of Guinea until Monday, December 22, 2008.
At the head of a military junta called the Military Committee for National Recovery (CMRN) which took power on April 3, 1984, Lansana Conté denounced the previous regime and freed several hundred political prisoners.
In a speech delivered on December 22, 1985, he announced economic liberalism, the reestablishment of private initiatives, the return of the Guinean franc, the reduction of government spending and encouraged foreign investment.
In April 1990, Lansana Conté was promoted to general while two years later, in 1992, the general established the multiparty system. In 1993, Lansana Conté organized a presidential election which he won with 51.7%, he was re-elected in 1998 with 56.1%.
In November 2001, President Conté amended the constitution to be able to run for a third term, which increased from five to seven years. In 2002 while the opposition boycotted the legislative elections, his party, the PUP, won the majority in the assembly with 85 deputies out of 114.
In the 2003 presidential election, Lansana Conté was re-elected with more than 95% of the votes. In 2007, a general strike paralyzed the entire country, the military regime violently repressed the demonstrations, more than a hundred dead and a thousand injured. Conté will eventually give in and appoint Lansana Kouyaté as Prime Minister.
Suffering from leukemia and an acute form of diabetes, Conté has been weakened for many years. In 2003 he was even forced to vote in his car because of the pain that prevented him from walking.
On December 22, 2008, Lansana Conté died following a long illness, it was Aboubacar Somparé, the president of the National Assembly who announced the news the next day, Prime Minister Ahmed Tidiane Souaré announced a 40-day national mourning before the CNDD seize power thereby suspending the constitution.
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