Police arrested dozens of people in Guinea’s capital Saturday and sealed off access to a stadium where opposition groups planned to rally in a call for clean elections in July.

Police arrested dozens of people in Guinea's capital Saturday and sealed off access to a stadium where opposition groups planned to rally in a call for clean elections in July.

Riot police with vehicles was seen preventing any access to the stadium in the Matam district of Conakry, while the local mayor denied opposition claims that the meeting had been officially notified in line with the law.

Dozens of people, mainly young, were picked up in the area around the stadium.

A statement by opposition parties on Thursday had announced a series of rallies across the nation from Saturday to force President Alpha Conde to organize credible and transparent legislative polls on July 8.

The communiqué published in local media was signed by several opposition parties including the Guinean Union of Democratic Forces of Cellou Dalein Diallo, a former prime minister.

The polls have been delayed several times and should have been held six months after Conde took office in November 2010 in Guinea's first democratic presidential election.

The opposition has accused the regime of planning to hold sham polls with no safeguards against fraud, and wants the electoral register to be audited before they take place.

The last legislative elections were in June 2002 during the regime of president Lansana Conte, who ruled the west African nation for 24 years until his death in December 2008.

A transitional council has served as a parliament since 2010 during the transition from military to civilian rule.

The European Union recently warned that if there were no democratic elections in Guinea it would withhold promised aid for the West African country.