Guinea to uphold 27 June election date

Lagos- Nigeria (PANA) -- Guinea's Interim Head of State, Brig.
-Gen.
Sekouba Konat e, has re-stated his commitment to holding presidential elections 27 June 2010, a ccording to a communique issued by the International Contact Group on Guinea (IC G -G), which met in the nation's capital, Conakry, last weekend.
In addition to upholding the election date, the political stakeholders have comm itted to respecting 'Point 8' of the Joint Ouagadougou Declaration, which stipul a tes that ''the President of the Transitional Authority, members of the (ruling) C NDD, the Prime Minister and members of the Transitional Government, the Presiden t and members of the National Transition Council as well as members of the Defens e and Security Forces in active service shall not be candidatesâ? in the said ele ctions.
ICG-G, in the communique which was obtained by PANA here Wednesday, expressed sa tisfaction with 'the significant progress' made in the transitional process, esp e cially the Decree of 6 May 2010 setting the date for the presidential election o n 27 June and that of 7 May relating to the promulgation of the revised Constitut i on.
It urged the Guinean authorities to promulgate the Electoral Code as soon as pos sible and to align the electoral timetable with the relevant legal texts.
On the preparations for the elections, the group also expressed satisfaction wit h what it called the substantial progress made in the finalization of the voters ' register and the emerging consensus around it, as well as with the start of the registrat ion of candidates for the presidential election.
Regarding the provision of electoral security, the Group urged the Guinean autho rities to adopt pertinent legislation and identify concrete needs in this respect to enable partners to contribute towards their fulfillment.
It also invited partners to finalize their plans for the deployment of observers to the elections, and reiterated its readiness to support the deployment of an E COWAS civil-security observer mission to the elections on the request of the aut h orities.
The 13th meeting of the ICG-G was attended by representatives of major stakehold ers, including those of the African Union, ECOWAS, World Bank and IMF; Permanent members of the UNSC (USA, UK, France, Russia and China) and the Non-Permanent me m ber of UNSC: Nigeria (also as Chair of the ECOWAS Authority); Malawi (Chair of t h e African Union); Germany, Spain, Japan, Canada; Burkina Faso- the Mediator in t h e Guinea crisis; Morocco, Cأ´te dâ?Ivoire, Ghana, Guinea Bissau Mali and Senegal , among others.