⁍ Guinea opposition candidate Cellou Dalein Diallo said on Monday that he had won the first round of the presidential election.

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⁍ But his claim was quickly disputed by the electoral commission, paving the way for a stand-off.

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⁍ Diallo is the main challenger to Guinea’s 82-year-old incumbent president, Alpha Conde.

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– Opposition candidate Cellou Dalein Diallo says he has won the presidential election in Guinea—but the country’s electoral commission disagrees. “Despite the serious anomalies that marred the smooth running of the … election and in view of the results that came out of the ballot boxes, I am victorious in this election in the first round,” Diallo said, according to Reuters. But the electoral commission says Diallo’s claim is ” null and void” because it is based on unofficial results from party observers. Diallo is the main challenger to 82-year-old incumbent President Alpha Conde, who is seeking a third mandate after a constitutional change in March which sparked deadly protests. Diallo’s party deployed its own election observers to around 15,000 polling stations and said it would publish the results posted outside each one. Following his announcement Diallo’s supporters swept into the streets in his strongholds, declaring their alleged victory. Security Minister Damantang Albert Camara accused the party of publishing false results, and warned that it risked triggering violence. “This strategy of forced, premature and unjustified celebration was carefully planned well before the election,’ Camara said in a statement. “There will never be any question of giving in to blackmail and violence.’ Rights groups say at least 50 people having been killed over the past year during demonstrations against the constitutional change that allowed Conde to seek at least six more years in power.