CONAKRY 23 Mar (ANA) - At least 10 people were killed in clashes Sunday between police and protesters, opposition activists said, as Guinea held a bitterly disputed referendum that critics say is a ploy by the president to stay in power.

Anti-government forces came under fire by security forces who "carried out massive arrests, fired blindly, cruelly molested (and) killed at least 10 people," the FNDC, an umbrella opposition group, said in a statement.

The FNDC, grouping opposition parties and civil society organisations, called for fresh protests Monday and Tuesday.

The authorities could not immediately be reached to confirm the casualty toll.

Alpha Conde, who became the West African country's first democratically elected president in 2010, is proposing a change to the constitution to codify gender equality and introduce other social reforms.

But his opponents fear the real motive is to reset presidential term limits, allowing Conde, 82, to run for a third spell in office later this year -- a scenario that his government has not discounted.

Early Sunday young people attacked police deployed outside a polling station in a suburb of the capital Conakry, according to an AFP reporter and other witnesses. In another school nearby, voting equipment was vandalised.

A 28-year-old man was shot dead and several others wounded in another Conakry suburb, Hamdallaye, the victim's brother confirmed to AFP. Officials did not respond to AFP's requests to confirm the death.

Clashes also broke out in other Conakry suburbs and elsewhere in the country, a former French colony.

Since October, Guineans have protested en masse against the possibility of Conde extending his grip on power.

Critics questioned the fairness of Sunday's vote, which took place amid mounting concern about the spread of the novel coronavirus in Africa, including two cases officially reported in Guinea.

"I have the impression our country is taking things lightly," said Amadou Oury Bah, a banker and politician who suspected the authorities were more interested in their electoral campaign than keeping the country safe from the pandemic.(ANA) 

FA/ANA/23 March 2020-----