No Settlement Yet in Ivory Coast Election Dispute

Former South African President Thabo Mbeki cutting his 65th birthday cake. The ANC is still on the US State Department's "terrorist list."
Originally uploaded by Pan-African News Wire File Photos

Mbeki fails to end Ivory Coast poll row

2010-12-06 22:31

Abidjan - Former South African leader Thabo Mbeki failed on Monday to settle an election row between Ivory Coast's presidential claimant Alassane Ouattara and incumbent Laurent Gbagbo, but made a plea for a peaceful solution.

Mbeki had aimed in two days of talks to defuse a power struggle enveloping the country since a poll which the electoral commission and international observers say Ouattara won.

Gbagbo has refused to concede after the election on November 28, that was meant to reunite the former regional economic star after a 2002-03 civil war, backed by the military and the top legal body, which has the last word.

But analysts warned the dispute could now pit the army against pro-Ouattara rebels, who told Reuters they would defend themselves from any attack.

"The African Union is very keen that peace can be sustained and every effort should be made to ensure this transition to democracy succeeds," Mbeki told journalists at Gbagbo's house before leaving, adding he would file a report to the union.

"Cote D'Ivoire (Ivory Coast) needs peace and needs democracy ... We indeed hope that the leadership of this country will do all that it can to ensure peace is maintained."

UN protection

Ouattara's camp at the Golf Hotel, where he is holed up under UN protection, held its first "council of ministers".

"If Laurent Gbagbo agrees to leave power quietly, the ministers from his party would be welcome in the government we plan to lead," Guillaume Soro, Ivory Coast's premier who has pledged to serve Ouattara, told France's Europe 1 radio.

Small groups of Ouattara-supporters burned tyres and blockaded roads in Abidjan on Monday as police in riot gear patrolled the streets. There were no reports of violence after at least 10 were killed in clashes over the previous two weeks.

The military extended a curfew for an extra week, until Sunday, but relaxed the hours from 22:00 to 05:00.

The political deadlock gripped the country after the constitutional council - run by a Gbagbo ally - scrapped hundreds of thousands of votes from Ouattara strongholds, reversing provisional results giving him a victory.

US President Barack Obama has sided with Ouattara, leading calls from the United Nations, France, the European Union, the African Union and West African bloc Ecowas that Gbagbo accept the election commission outcome. Ecowas leaders are due to hold an emergency summit on Ivory Coast on Tuesday.

Interference

Gbagbo has scorned the international rejection as an affront to Ivorian sovereignty and has threatened to expel the UN Ivory Coast envoy for interference in internal affairs.

Citing a "breakdown of governance", the World Bank and the African Development Bank said they would reassess aid, adding pressure on Gbagbo who has run Ivory Coast for a decade.

Ouattara has already named Gbagbo's former finance minister, Charles Koffi Dibby, to his cabinet, a move which would strip Gbagbo of an official praised for his handling of debt talks. Dibby was not available to confirm he had switched sides.

The World Bank has tied the cancellation of $3bn of external debt, estimated to total $12.5bn, to smooth elections. But Gbagbo's hand on the economy is strengthened by revenues from cocoa, oil and other commodities.

Benchmark ICE cocoa futures traded at a four-month high of $3 028 a ton on Monday on fears of supply disruptions.

Despite the stand-off, Ivory Coast reopened its borders on Monday that had been sealed during a tense wait for results, and traffic in Abidjan's business district was almost normal.

Rebels

The army chief of staff has sworn allegiance to Gbagbo and troops appear to be on his side for now. Ouattara, meanwhile, has the support of the New Forces rebels occupying the north.

"We've put our troops on alert," New Forces spokesperson Seydou Ouattara told Reuters. "If we are attacked we will defend our zones and we will take the rest of the Ivorian territory," he said, adding he hoped diplomacy would help avoid a "bloodbath".

Gbagbo has been in power a decade but now faces isolation. Diplomats said Russia, whose Lukoil is exploring for oil there, has blocked UN Security Council efforts to back Ouattara.

- Reuters