Bombay Durpun - Guinea junta chief headed for victory in presidential vote

As the polling stations began to close from 1800 GMT, officials began counting the votes.

By running, the strongman reneged on a pledge not to stand for office and to hand the west African country back to civilian rule by the end of 2024.

Since seizing power in 2021, Doumbouya has cracked down on civil liberties, and protests have been banned while opponents have been arrested, put on trial or driven into exile.

Some 6.8 million people were eligible to choose between the nine approved candidates. Doumbouya, 41, is running as an independent.

Earlier, escorted by dozens of special forces personnel, the junta chief voted with his wife in a central district of the capital Conakry.

Dressed in a boubou and white cap, Doumbouya -- who did not hold any rallies during the campaign -- greeted supporters but made no statement.

AFP journalists saw a large security presence, including armoured vehicles, patrolling the capital's streets.

Security forces said they had "neutralised" members of an armed group with "subversive intentions threatening national security" on Saturday in the Conakry suburbs.

"I am here to fulfil a civic duty," Colle Camara, a 45-year-old teacher, told AFP, as he cast his ballot in what he hoped would be a "peaceful" election.

Doumbouya looked set to win in the first round of voting, against eight relatively unknown remaining rivals. Provisional results are expected within two days.

- Calm -

The opposition called for a boycott of the vote, in a country rich in minerals but where 52 percent of the population lives in poverty, according to World Bank figures.

Turnout in Conakry was steady at the polling stations visited by AFP journalists, but less than for a constitutional referendum in September.

"What's the point of getting worked up about going to vote when the outcome is already known in advance?" a voter in a suburb told AFP on condition of anonymity.

UN human rights chief Volker Turk said Friday the campaign had been "marked by intimidation of opposition actors, apparently politically-motivated enforced disappearances, and constraints on media freedom".

Foreign observers contacted by AFP said turnout was also down in other towns such as Labe in the north, Kankan in the east and southern N'Zerekore.

Guinea's electoral authority put overall voter participation at a provisional 85 percent shortly after voting ended.

"Voting began calmly, with no incidents or violence reported," observers from the West Africa Network for Peacebuilding (WANEP) said in a statement published around midday.

The vote, which fell on the same day as elections in the Central African Republic, caps a busy electoral year in Africa -- marked by authoritarianism and oppression, as well as wins for several longstanding leaders, including in Cameroon and Ivory Coast where the main rivals were also barred.

- 'Electoral charade' -

Guinea experienced a rare democratic transition with the 2010 election of Alpha Conde, its first freely elected president.

Doumbouya overthrew him in September 2021.

Guinea's new constitution allowed junta members including Doumbouya to stand for election and lengthened presidential terms from five to seven years, renewable once.

Unlike its neighbour Mali and nearby Burkina Faso and Niger, all of which are also under military rule, Guinea has maintained good relations with former colonial master France and other international partners.

Opposition leader and former prime minister Cellou Dalein Diallo has condemned the vote as "an electoral charade" aimed at giving legitimacy to "the planned confiscation of power".

He is one of three opposition leaders barred from standing in the vote by the new constitution.

Diallo was excluded because he lives in exile and his primary residence is not in Guinea. Former president Conde and ex-prime minister Sidya Toure, who also live in exile, are over the maximim age limit of 80.

In a social media video, Doumbouya touted his infrastructure achievements, promised to fight corruption and expressed his ambition to "make Guinea an emerging country".

C.Jaggi--BD