1954 Guinea by-election

France 55.13% ( 1.82pp) 466,666 1956 parliamentary 1951 French legislative election in Guinea 1951 1954 06 27 1956 French legislative election in Guinea Constituency of Guinea Diawadou Barry Ind Independent politician 145,497 57.12% Ahmed Sékou Touré (1982) (3x4 crop).jpg Ahmed Sékou Touré Democratic Party of Guinea – African Democratic Rally 85,808 33.69% MP Yacine Diallo French Section of the Workers' International Diawadou Barry Independent politician A by-election for one of the French National Assembly seats from Guinea was held on June 27, 1954. The socialist Yaciné Diallo, who had won one of the three Guinean seats in the 1951 French National Assembly election, died in April 1954, after which the by-election was called. The election was won by Diawadou Barry, but it also marked the ascent of Sékou Touré's Democratic Party of Guinea (PDG) in Guinean politics.Claude Rivière. Guinea: The Mobilization of a People https://web.archive.org/web/20110723155030/http://www.intelligentsia-gn.net/mobilisation%20en%20GuineCR.pdf 2011-07-23 The election was marred with irregularities and reportedly rigged by France to favor Barry and prevent Sékou Touré from winning. Candidates There were three main candidates taking part in the election; Barry Diawadou, Sékou Touré and Ibrahima Barry ('Barry III') of the newly founded Socialist Democracy of Guinea (DSG). Barry Diawadou was supported by a coordination committee of local formations during the run-up to the election. The coordination committee based on an agreement between the Fula (fr Peul; ff Fulɓe) chiefs of Futa Jalon and regional formations in lower Guinea. Under the arrangement, the Fula chiefs would be able to select the candidate for the French National Assembly seat, whilst the groups from lower Guinea would select candidates for second-college senator (Fodé Mamadou Touré) and French Union assemblyman (Karim Bangoura). The Fula chiefs' candidate became Barry Diawadou, after Diawadou had received the backing of the Futa Jalon spiritual leader almami Ibrahima Sory Dara. Diawadou himself was the son of the almami of Dabola. Sékou Touré (later the president of Guinea 1958-1984) was the candidate of the PDG, the Guinean branch of the African Democratic Rally (RDA). Touré was a prominent trade union leader.Hakim Adi, and Marika Sherwood. Pan-African History: Political Figures from Africa and the Diaspora Since 1787. London: Routledge, 2003. p. 178 Touré and his party were popularly referred to as syli (susu for 'elephant'), a name given to symbolize strength. Conduct The election was marred with irregularities. The principle of secrecy of vote was not respected. In many cases local chiefs were in charge of distributing voting cards, chiefs who simultaneously were campaigning for Barry Diawadou (the electoral law demanded that local committees be formed with representatives of all parties for the sake of distributing voting cards). On many occasions, the ballot for Barry Diawadou was attached to the voting cards. At the voting stations, PDG representatives were chased away or physically abused in many locations. With the PDG representatives gone, the fraud could go on without limitations. The irregularities were most widespread in Futa Jalon, the stronghold of Barry Diawadou. The French minister Robert Buron admitted in 1968 that the election had been rigged by France to prevent Sékou Touré from winning.Buron Robert Robert Buron 1968 Les Dernières Années de la IVᵉ République. Carnets politiques Paris Plon 139 9782259300131Boukari-Yabara Amzat 2023 Borrel Thomas Boukari-Yabara Amzat Collombat Benoît Deltombe Thomas Une histoire de la Françafrique: L'empire qui ne veut pas mourir Seuil 181 Répressions coloniales et résistances africaines 9782757897751 Results Barry Diawadou Independent 145497 Sékou Touré Democratic Party of Guinea 85808 Barry III DSG–SFIO 7985 Four other candidates 15432 2574 466666 Schmidt,Elizabeth Schmidt. Cold War and Decolonization in Guinea, 1946-1958. Western African studies. Athens: Ohio University Press, 2007. pp. 73–83 Sternberger et al.Dolf Sternberger, Bernhard Vogel, Dieter Nohlen & Klaus Landfried (1978) Die Wahl der Parlamente: Band II: Afrika, Erster Halbband, p837 Aftermath Immediately after the official results had been declared, the PDG cried foul and accused the French administration of having committed fraud to ensure the victory of Barry Diawadou. In the months following the vote, the PDG pinned its hopes to the possibility that the French National Assembly might refuse to validate the results. The party campaigned vigorously to show its force, and mass demonstrations were held throughout Guinea to condemn the electoral fraud. PDG followers composed various songs, sung at the public meetings. The stated that the Syli had been robbed of his legitimate victory, and that Barry Diawadou was a weak coward. Moreover, at the SFIO congress in July 1954 the actions of the French governor in Guinea were condemned. The SFIO congress charged that the governor had openly supported Diawadou's candidacy, in breach of the expected neutrality of the administration.https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.1086/ahr.110.4.975 Top Down or Bottom Up? Nationalist Mobilization Reconsidered, with Special Reference to Guinea (French West Africa) Elizabeth Schmidt The American Historical Review 110 4 975–1014 October 2005 Following the election, the committee that had supported Barry Diawadou's candidacy formed the African Bloc of Guinea fr Bloc africain de Guinée (BAG) in late 1954. On January 21, 1955 a vote of validation was held in the French National Assembly regarding the 1954 election in Guinea. SFIO no longer voiced any opposition. Many of the Democratic and Socialist Union of the Resistance (the parliamentary ally of RDA) assembly members were absent at the time of the vote. The validation was passed with a wide majority; only the assembly members of the French Communist Party and RDA voted against the validation. After the validation had passed, the situation became tense in lower Guinea. When Barry Diawadou's father visited Conakry on January 30, 1955, widespread riots broke out. Violent incidents also occurred in Dubréka and Boffa. These confrontations occurred in spite of appeals of the PDG to its followers to remain calm. References Guinea Guinea Category:French elections in Guinea By-election Guinea Category:Election and referendum articles with incomplete results