GENERAL URGES GUINEA RIVALS TO ACCEPT VOTE OUTCOME

The general leading Guinea's election security forces, Sekouba Konate on Wednesday urged candidates to accept the outcome of Sunday's presidential run-off, as authorities issued a fresh batch of results, Reuters reports.

Concerns are rising that the West African state's first free vote since independence in 1958 could rekindle ethnic tensions following a campaign period marked by outbreaks of violence.

'The leaders must understand they have a responsibility to accept the results, for the loser to accept defeat graciously,' General Ibrahim Balde, head of the national guard and electoral security forces, told Reuters.

'If they do not, I do not want to say what will happen. No one wishes it,' he said.