French Fifth Republic of the election on 9 January 1959. The new president began his office on that date, appointing Michel Debré as Prime Minister. The 1958 constitution also replaced the French Union with the French Community, which allowed fourteen member territories (these did not include Algeria) to assert their independence. 1960 became known as the "Year of Africa" because of this wave of newly independent states. Algeria became independent on 5 July 1962. The president was initially elected by an electoral college, but in 1962 de Gaulle proposed that the president be directly elected by the citizens, and held a referendum on
Cabinet of the First Republic of Guinea Cabinet of the First Republic of Guinea The Cabinet of the First Republic of Guinea was the governing body of Guinea from independence on 28 September 1958 until the death of President Ahmed Sékou Touré on 26 March 1984, followed by a bloodless coup by Colonel Lansana Conté on 5 April 1984. For much of that time, the country was run by a tight-knit inner group, many of them relatives of Sékou Touré, who became the primary beneficiaries of the regime. The council during the transition to independence, announced on 9 May 1957, had the following members: The first council