20120704
AFP
Guinean President Alpha Conde on Tuesday promised that much-delayed parliamentary polls would be organised by the end of the year.

Legislative polls were theoretically due to have been held within six months of his inauguration in December 2010 but have been repeatedly postponed.

Conde, who last announced a postponement in April, told AFP in Paris that he hoped fresh polls would be held "before the end of the rainy season" in September.

"We will do everything to make sure it happens by the end of the year," he said.

Conde has admitted that the presidential election he won in 2010 had been flawed and argued that the country needed more time to organise credible parliamentary polls.

The European Union has warned that, without democratic polls, no aid will be released to the troubled west African country.

The last legislative elections were held in June 2002 during the regime of president Lansana Conte, who died in December 2008 after 24 years in power.

A national transitional council now serves as the parliament. It was set up in 2010, during a transition led by General Sekouba Konate, who handed power to Conde after the November 2010 second round of a presidential vote.