Guinean President Alpha Conde will be attending the G8 summits set for May 26-27 in Deauville, France as a special guest, the first time for a Guinean head of state to be invited to the gathering.

A press release from the French presidency obtained here on Tuesday said the invitation of Conde at the G8 summits is affirmation of democracy in Guinea.

After fifty years of political struggle, the new Guinean head of state came a long way to gain power. He was exiled, sentenced in absentia, arrested, tried and arbitrarily sentenced.

President Conde is today seen by many here as a man of conviction who wants stability and development in his country.

He won the 1993 presidential election against the late president Lansana Conte of the Party of Unity and Progress (PUP), but was denied power. Conde remained calm and did not call for any civil disobedience. Instead, he urged his militants to accept the results as it was.

President Conde will attend the G8 summit together with two of his sub-regional counterparts -- Cote d'Ivoire's Alassan Ouattara and Niger's Mahamadou Issoufou. All the three countries have come out of the shadow of instability after elections recently.

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