Guinea junta leader to be sworn in as interim president: Supreme Court

The Guinean militant leader who overthrew President Alpha Conde earlier this month will be sworn in as interim president on Friday, the Supreme Court said Thursday.

Col. Mamadi Doumbouya is scheduled to be sworn in at noon in the conference room of the Mohammed V Palace in the capital, Conakry, according to a statement by the Supreme Court relayed to the media.

The inaugural event will be curtailed with attendance restricted "only to invited personalities," the statement said, reaffirming a statement by military leaders that was read late Wednesday on state television.

Doumbouya will serve in the post before the country returns to civilian rule.

The junta unveiled its "transitional charter" on Monday that it said will help steer the West African country back to civilian rule.

Outlining a series of tasks, including drafting the new Constitution and holding elections, the charter did not define a time limit to the transitional period.

The charter, however, indicated that the duration of the transition would be determined by "joint agreement among the living forces of the nation" and the CNRD.

Doumbaya will be president of the transition and serve as chairman of the National Rallying Committee for Development (CNRD) set up by the junta, head of state and chief of the armed forces.

The National Transition Council, or CNT, comprising 81 members drawn from political parties, civil society, trade unions, employers, security forces and other bodies, will have the task of drafting a new Constitution.

The military, led by Doumbouya, deposed Conde on Sept. 5.

Conde, 83, became Guinea's first democratically-elected president in 2010 and was re-elected in 2015.

But last year, he pushed through constitutional changes that allowed him to run for a controversial third term in October 2020, which he won in an election dismissed as a sham by the opposition.

Mass demonstrations in which dozens of protesters were reported killed erupted after the election.