Cote d'Ivoire misses poll deadline

Election commission calls for patience as announcement of contested election result passes midnight cut-off point. Last Modified: 02 Dec 2010 02:20 GMT Email Article Print Article Share Article Send Feedback

Chaotic scenes have prevented the results being announced amid accusations of cheating by both sides [AFP] Cote d'Ivoire has missed a deadline for releasing results in its presidential election after a midnight cut-off point passed with no announcement by electoral authorities. Youssouf Bakoyoko, the head of the electoral commission, said on television minutes before midnight on Wednesday that the body was still working to reach a consensus on results. Supporters of Laurent Gbagbo, the incumbent president, and those of Alassane Ouattara, the opposition leader, have accused each other of trying to rig Sunday's poll. The election commission was legally obliged to announce a the results by the end of Wednesday, which then have to be confirmed by the Constitutional Council, a body headed by a close associate of Gbagbo. By midnight, however, journalists were still being barred from the electoral commission's headquarters, which were surrounded by soldiers and police. Blocking announcement Allies of Gbagbo had vowed to ensure the annulment of votes in four northern regions, while the camp of his main rival Alassane Ouattara accused the president of trying to steal power by blocking the announcement of partial results. Al Jazeera's Yvonne Ndege, reporting from Abidjan, said that the chairman of the election commission appeared on television, calling on people to be patient so the commission could do its work. "We are waiting for news but it never comes. It's making people afraid. After the results are announced, if they are contested that could lead to days of trouble" Marcel Camara, Ivorian national "As a consequence that the deadline has now passed the Constitutional Court of Cote d'Ivoire can step into this matter," said Ndege. "The court could in essence take away control from the commission and try and decide who has won this election. "There are three options on the table: They could validate the results; they could invalidate the results; or they could suspend them, which could potentially mean a re-run of the election in some of the regions where Laurent Gbagbo is disputing the outcome," our correspondent said. Ban Ki-moon, the UN secretary-general, criticised the failure to release provisional presidential election results and called for their publication "without further delay". Troops had been redeployed to secure Abidjan on Wednesday, ahead of the results of the polls which seek to end a decade of instability in the world's biggest cocoa producer. "People are going a bit crazy. There are hundreds of rumours of violence so the atmosphere is rather tense," said Marcel Camara, a local resident from the Abobo district of Abidjan, where a curfew has been in force since Saturday. "We are waiting for news but it never comes. It's making people afraid. After the results are announced, if they are contested that could lead to days of trouble," he said. Chaotic scenes Chaotic scenes prevented results being announced on Tuesday amid accusations of cheating by both sides, though the UN mission in the country said the election was fair overall. Sources told Al Jazeera that preliminary results put Ouattara ahead and that Gbagbo would reject the results of Sunday's run-off vote on the grounds of fraud and intimidation. At an earlier news conference, a supporter of Gbagbo in the commission seized papers with partial results from the hands of a spokesman who was about to read them out and tore them up, before the spokesman was escorted away by police. "We will fight to the end to ensure that the true results are published," Pascal Affi N'Guessan, Gbagbo's spokesman, told a news conference on Wednesday. "We will do all in our power for the results in all areas where fraud took place in the elections fraudulently to be annulled, so that the outcome of the ballots reflects the real opinion of our countrymen." Nearly six million people were eligible to vote in the poll, aimed at reuniting the nation after eight years of division Ouattara's camp earlier accused Gbagbo's allies of deliberately blocking the results. "Laurent Gbagbo is aiming for a confiscation of power and aiming to drive the country once again into chaos," Albert Mabri Toikeusse, a spokesman for Ouattara, told a news conference. The election is intended to end years of crisis in the west African country, which was split in two when former rebels of the New Forces took control of the north after a foiled coup bid against Gbagbo in 2002. Ouattara's Rally of Republicans (RDR) party said voters had been intimidated by security forces and barred from voting, alleging that ballot papers had been tampered with. Gbagbo's side in turn accused Ouattara supporters of raiding voting stations in the north. International observers confirmed there were some abuses, but Choi Young-jin, the head of the UN mission in the country, said the vote "was generally conducted in a democratic climate" despite some violent incidents. Calls for calm have increased, with Hillary Clinton, the US secretary of state, urging Ivorian leaders "to act responsibly and peacefully". Catherine Ashton, the European Union's chief diplomat, called on authorities to respect "the will of the Ivorian people" and release the results. But hundreds of army and former rebel troops previously dispatched from either side of the north-south political divide to secure the vote together have pulled back to their strongholds, Rene Sacko, a senior army officer, said on Tuesday.

Source: Al Jazeera and agencies