Aboubacar Somparé

Guinean politician (1944–2017)

El Hajj Aboubacar Somparé (; 31 August 1944 – 2 November 2017) was a Guinean politician who was President of the National Assembly of Guinea from 2002 to 2008. He was previously Guinea's Ambassador to France from 1978 to 1984 and was Secretary General of the Unity and Progress Party (PUP) from 1995 to 2002.

Somparé was born in Dakonta, located in Boké Prefecture. He was the Regional Director of Education in Labé from August 1970 to September 1973, Director General of Secondary Education at the Ministry of Pre University Education from September 1973 to December 1976, and Director General of the Information Services from December 1976 to February 1978. Subsequently, he was posted to Paris as Guinea's Ambassador to France from February 1978 to September 1984; after his return from Paris, he was an advisor at the Ministry of Administrative Reform and the Civil Service from November 1984 to July 1986. He was then Administrator of the Palace of Nations (the presidential palace) in Conakry from July 1986 to May 1987 and Rector of the University of Conakry from May 1987 to May 1989. he was chosen by President Lansana Conté to become President of the National Assembly. Conté had some difficulty obtaining the necessary support for Somparé among parliamentary deputies, and for that reason he delayed the opening of the National Assembly. Ultimately he was elected as President of the National Assembly at a special session on 23 September 2002, he was also reportedly unpopular with the army and much of the PUP leadership. During that time, Somparé was apparently engaged in a rivalry with PUP Secretary General Sékou Konaté.

In the early hours of 23 December 2008, Somparé announced on television that President Conté had died "after a long illness" on the previous day. According to the constitution, the President of the National Assembly was to assume the Presidency of the Republic in the event of a vacancy, and a new presidential election was to be held within 60 days. Somparé requested that the President of the Supreme Court, Lamine Sidimé, declare a vacancy in the Presidency and apply the constitution. Prime Minister Ahmed Tidiane Souaré and Diarra Camara, the head of the army, stood alongside Somparé during his announcement. Somparé later said in an interview that Sidimé initially could not be reached after Conté's death, and that when Sidimé subsequently arrived at the People's Palace to discuss the situation, he delayed taking the necessary legal steps on the "pretext" that he could not arrange a ceremony until the next day. Six hours after Somparé announced Conté's death, a statement was read on television announcing a military coup d'état. This statement, read on behalf of a junta called the National Council for Democracy and Development (CNDD), said that "the government and the institutions of the republic have been dissolved"; it also announced that the constitution was suspended. Somparé went into hiding and told the press that the newly established junta was trying to find him; he also urged the international community to "mobilise to prevent the military from interrupting the democratic process". After a few days in hiding, he emerged on 27 December to attend a meeting of political and social representatives that was called by the junta and held at the Alpha Yaya Diallo military camp.

With the PUP out of power for the first time in its history, in late January 2009 a "refoundation" movement was reportedly established within the PUP that intended to remove supporters of Somparé and his old rival, Sékou Konaté, from the party leadership. Amidst speculation that the future of the party was in doubt, Somparé and Konaté reconciled in March 2009. Somparé was largely silent in public in the year that followed the coup. Unlike many other Conté officials, he was left alone by the CNDD junta. At a PUP meeting on 6 March 2010, Somparé criticized the opposition parties that chose to embrace the coup; he argued that their initial acceptance of the coup demonstrated that they were "not sincere" in their claimed commitment to democracy and constitutional governance. Somparé was then chosen as the PUP's candidate for the June 2010 presidential election at a party congress on 27–28 March 2010.

Somparé died on 2 November 2017.