Meetings aimed at promoting reconciliation opened in Conakry on Tuesday, six months after a military coup upset the country’s constitutional order.
Dubbed the national conference, the meetings will be held over several weeks and will bring together political parties, youth groups, women's organisations, traditional leaders and the civil society to discuss what junta leader Colonel Mamady Doumboya has called a ''new institutional framework" for the country.
While some people would rather the junta organize dialogue about the transition from army rule, others questioned why there was known agenda for the conference.
The country's army leaders have not spelt out a schedule for a return to civilian rule despite pressure from West Africa's regional bloc ECOWAS.
It is also not clear what the authorities will do with the recommendations of the meetings.
Critics of the junta say the conference is a ploy by army leaders to divert voices clamoring for a transition.