20100927
reuters

CONAKRY (Reuters) - A dispute over alleged bias in Guinea's election body means the West African country could miss an October 10 target date for the decisive second round of its presidential vote, political parties said on Monday.

A fresh delay over an election originally slated for last month would be the biggest blow yet to internationally-backed efforts to restore civilian rule to a country which is key to regional security and is a major minerals producer.

"The October 10 date is at risk because of the CENI (election commission) situation," Mamadou Bah Baddiko, spokesman for the party of presidential candidate Celou Dalien Diallo, said.

"We had a number of discussions at the weekend but in our view we have reached a political and legal impasse," he added.

Diallo's camp had been pressing for an early election. But last week it accused Lounceny Camara, newly appointed head of the CENI, of supporting presidential rival Alpha Conde and said it could not accept an election organised by him.

"At this rate, we are set to delay the date to October 17 at best -- in fact we could even be looking at October 24," said an official of Conde's RPG party who declined to be named.

A third official involved in planning meetings for the election said October 10 also appeared to be ruled out because so far only 3.5 million out of the total five million voting slips required had been delivered.

The dispute has prevented junta leader Sekouba Konate from formally approving October 10 as the run-off date despite growing concerns that a further delay could lead to a repeat of street clashes last month between rival factions.