The vote count in Sunday's presidential election in Guinea is underway and "the first partial results" of the poll, which pitted nine candidates against each other, including the favorite and head of the junta, General Mamadi Doumbouya, are expected on Monday, said the Director General of Elections (DGE), Ms. Djenabou Touré.

The opposition, whose leading figures were excluded from the vote, called for a boycott of the election, which was organized more than four years after the September 2021 coup that overthrew President Alpha Condé, who had been in power since 2010.

"All the administrative commissions for centralizing (the results) have begun their work. The processing of the results has begun," said Ms. Touré, on Sunday night into Monday, on Guinean radio and television (RTG).

"This (centralization) process, both manual and computerized, is already allowing us to collect the first data. The first partial results should be communicated as early as this Monday, December 29," indicated the head of the DGE, attached to the Ministry of Territorial Administration (Interior).

"The partial publication of results will begin with the prefectures, then the African continent, before continuing with those of Europe, Asia and America," she added.

Ms. Touré told AFP on Sunday evening that voter turnout, the main issue in the election given the absence of any major opposition candidates, was 85%. No major incidents were reported during the voting.

Nearly 6.8 million voters, including some 125,000 abroad, were called to vote on Sunday to choose between nine contenders, including General Doumbouya, 41, who seems assured of winning in the first round against candidates little known to the general public and in a context of shrinking freedoms.

At the end of September, Guineans approved a new Constitution in a referendum that the opposition had called for a boycott of, but where participation officially reached 91%.

The new Constitution, which allows members of the junta to run for office, paved the way for Mr. Doumbouya's candidacy. It also extended the presidential term from five to seven years, renewable once.

Guinea is rich in minerals but more than half of its inhabitants (52%) live below the poverty line, according to World Bank figures for 2024. The West African country has, since its independence from France in 1958, always been ruled by authoritarian regimes.