01/18/2014 22:26 GMT
CONAKRY, January 18, 2014 (AFP) - Guinea's President Alpha Conde said on Saturday he had reinstated his prime minister just three days after accepting his resignation to make way for a new administration following parliamentary elections.
Mohamed Said Fofana was quoted in a presidential statement on Wednesday as announcing that he and his government were stepping down and thanking Conde "for the confidence he has put in me over the three years" of his premiership.
But Conde said in a decree broadcast on state television Fofana would be reassuming his post, without giving any further details.
Fofana's resignation, which had been widely expected as part of the west African nation's return to democracy following years of unrest, came two days after the newly-elected national assembly opened for business.
The September 28 polls gave Conde's Rally of the Guinean People (RGP) and its junior partners an absolute majority in the parliament but the ballot came under heavy criticism from opposition parties.
The opposition coalition alleged "massive fraud", claiming the polls were marred by irregularities including ballot stuffing, voter intimidation and minors casting votes.
International observers also said serious flaws had affected the credibility of the vote and anti-government demonstrators have staged several protests in Guinea's capital Conakry over a Supreme Court ruling in November confirming the result.
The election had been delayed numerous times since the country's first-ever democratic poll in 2010, stoking deadly ethnic tensions that have dogged Guinean politics since independence.
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