Guinean President Alpha Conde has pardoned about 40 opposition members whom authorities arrested in April on suspicion of disturbing public order.

In a statement late Monday, Mr. Conde said he pardoned opposition activists who were jailed for violence and vandalism as they celebrated the return of opposition leader Cellou Diallo to the capital Conakry on April 3.

Guinean opposition activists told VOA the government also has agreed to meet a group of opposition parties in Conakry on Wednesday to discuss preparations for a parliamentary election due later this year.

Diallo's party opposes Mr. Conde's plan for a government census to revise voting lists before the election. The Guinean Union of Democratic Forces says an independent electoral body should conduct the census, not the Conde government.

Mr. Conde met with U.S. President Barack Obama at the White House last month and pledged to keep the West African nation “on the path of democracy.” He was elected president last November in Guinea's first free and fair election since independence in 1958. He survived two attacks by mutinous soldiers on his Conakry home on July 19.