Cellou Dalein Diallo - Opposition Leader

Opposition Leader

On 8 November 2007, an opposition political party, the Union of Democratic Forces of Guinea (UFDG), announced that it had appointed Diallo as its President, succeeding Mamadou Ba. After he took office as the group's leader, Diallo said on 15 November that he believed that Conté would not run in the 2010 presidential election; he also said that he "always maintained good relations with General Lansana Conté and his family".

Following the appointment of Ahmed Tidiane Souaré as Prime Minister, Diallo was present, along with other former ministers, when Souaré gave a press conference on 22 May 2008. On 28 May, he was one of the party leaders who met with Souaré to discuss the formation of a national unity government.

Conté died in December 2008 and soldiers immediately seized power in a military coup d'état. About 20 soldiers searched Diallo's home on 1 January 2009, while holding Diallo and his family at gunpoint. According to Diallo, the search was based on suspicions that Diallo might have weapons and mercenaries as part of a coup plot, but he said that the soldiers did not take anything from his home. A junta delegation met with Diallo on 2 January and condemned the search, saying that "uncontrollable elements out to hurt the junta" were to blame and that the junta had nothing to do with it.

Diallo tried to hold a meeting in Kerouane in June 2009, but the junta did not allow him to do so; it also would not let him stay overnight in Kankan. After junta leader Moussa Dadis Camara suggested in August 2009 that he might stand as a presidential candidate in the planned 2010 election, Diallo urged him not to do so, saying that the election's "transparency and reliability ... require the administration's neutrality and impartiality". After spending time in France and Senegal, he returned to Conakry on 13 September 2009 and was greeted at the airport by about 60,000 supporters.

On 28 September 2009, Diallo participated in a massive opposition protest in Conakry, which was directed against Camara's suspected aspirations to run for President in 2010. He was injured at the protest, in which soldiers opened fire on the protesters and allegedly killed 157 people; three of his ribs were reportedly broken. Subsequently he was barred from leaving the country for medical treatment on 30 September, but soon afterwards he was transported to Dakar aboard the Senegalese presidential plane, and from there he was flown to Paris for treatment.