CONAKRY — Guineans voted on Sunday in a constitutional referendum widely expected to pass, a step that would allow junta leader Mamadi Doumbouya to stand in a promised presidential election after seizing power in a 2021 coup. Polling stations opened across the West African country amid a heavy security presence.

The proposed charter would extend presidential terms and, critics say, remove barriers preventing members of the transitional military government from contesting the vote. Doumbouya, who ousted President Alpha Condé nearly five years ago, has repeatedly delayed the return to civilian rule pledged to the Economic Community of West African States.

Opposition coalitions, including allies of the dissolved FNDC movement, called for a boycott, arguing the process lacked independent oversight and that key figures had been detained or forced into exile. Human Rights Watch and other rights groups have documented the disappearance of prominent government critics in the months before the vote.

Guinea joins Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger, where military rulers have consolidated power and distanced themselves from Western partners. Analysts at the International Crisis Group have warned that a comfortable "yes" result would entrench junta rule and dim hopes of a genuine democratic transition in the mineral-rich state.

Guinea is one of the world's largest producers of bauxite, and stability in Conakry carries weight for global aluminium supply chains. Election authorities said preliminary turnout figures and early results would be announced in the days following the vote.