Tensions rise as president's aide rejects international pressure to accept rival's apparent election victory
- guardian.co.uk,
Ivory Coast is at risk of war if its defeated president attempts to cling to power, the country's opposition warned today.
Fears of conflict heightened as president Laurent Gbagbo appeared unwilling to accept provisional results showing that rival Alassane Ouattara had won the country's first election in 10 years.
The poll had been intended to heal divisions in the west African country but has instead triggered a political crisis.
Jennot Ahoussou, an aide to Ouattara, warned of the risk of war and deepening divisions in Ivory Coast if the constitutional council, which must confirm the result, overturned Ouattara's provisional score of 54.1%.
Another senior campaign aide, Amadou Gon, said the Ouattara camp would reject any legal bid to nullify his victory.
With tensions growing, security forces shot dead four people at an Ouattara party office on Wednesday night. The military has sealed Ivory Coast's air, land and sea borders. BBC FM radio was taken off air today , joining satellite channel France24 and Radio France Internationale FM.
Leaders of the US, France and the UN have called on candidates to respect the will of the people. UN security council members "reiterated their readiness to take the appropriate measures against those who obstruct the electoral process", said Susan Rice, the American ambassador to the UN.
The US said that "no party should be allowed to obstruct further the electoral process", while French president Nicolas Sarkozy urged the constitutional council to "respect the will clearly expressed by the Ivorian people".
But Gbagbo's campaign director has dismissed international pressure and said the constitutional council is now the only body with the authority to determine the outcome. It has seven days to do so but the council's head, Paul Yao N'Dre, who is close to Gbagbo, has already rejected the results.
The country now faces a protracted legal battle. Gbagbo's camp says the results are invalid as the election commission missed by one day the deadline for their publication, and alleges mass vote rigging in the rebel-held north.
State television has not broadcast the results. It has recycled old footage of two relatively unknown observer missions listing problems with voting in the north during the election and the council head saying the election commission's results were not valid.
"Another failed coup d'état by France," read the front-page headline of the pro-Gbagbo newspaper Notre Voie.
Today banks were shut and port activity slow in the economic capital, Abidjan. A few taxis toured the usually bustling city centre.
Shops were shuttered and the port through which much of the world's cocoa passes was largely inactive.
"I came to see if I could get some work today but I think that will be pretty difficult," said Germain Gado, 31, a docker sitting at the entrance of the port.
"Since the curfew there have been very few ships," he said of the security measure imposed by Gbagbo before last Sunday's poll, which was aimed at reuniting a country torn apart by a 2002-2003 civil war and long political stalemate.
Cocoa exporters said the closing of borders would not have an immediate impact on the trade because business had virtually ground to a halt after tensions over the election result.
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