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| - French far-left leader Jean-Luc Melenchon on Wednesday declared his support for anti-government protesters in Guinea, who have taken to the streets again after a weeks-long hiatus. Hundreds of thousands of people in the West African state have protested since mid-October over fears that President Alpha Conde plans to use a constitutional referendum to stay in power. The referendum on changing the constitution in the former French colony is due to be held on March 1, at the same time as parliamentary elections. In a video posted on social media, Melenchon praised the umbrella group called the National Front for the Defense of the Constitution (FNDC), which is behind the rallies. "The FNDC is a creation of a type that could inspire other people and us, in particular, the French," said Melenchon, the head of the France Unbowed party. After several weeks of little activity, scattered protests against changing the constitution broke out again in Guinea on Wednesday. Most of the capital Conakry lay empty, an AFP journalist said, as many people stayed home. But Guinea's security ministry said on Wednesday that there had been "some disturbances to public order in some parts of Conakry". It added that the rest of the country was mostly spared unrest, except for the town of Coyah some 30 kilometres (20 miles) from the capital, where "yobs" raised barricades and poured used oil on the roads. In Coyah, French journalist Thomas Dietrich said a gendarme tried to confiscate his footage, and then handed back his equipment threatening to kill him if he "messed around". The gendarmie -- a police force under the control of the military -- declined to comment. Dietrich later posted a video of unrest in Coyah on Twitter, which Melenchon shared. Jailed under previous hardline regimes, Conde became Guinea's first democratically elected president in 2010 and was returned to office by voters in 2015 for his second and final five-year term under the current constitution. When he first launched consultations on reforming the constitution in September, the opposition accused him of seeking to in effect restart his time in office and allow him to run for a third term. Conde said on Monday that his party would decide whether he would run for president again, adding that there was "nothing more democratic" than holding a referendum. bm/siu/mrb/stb/eml/pma
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