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afrol.com, 23 October - Reports coming in from both the economic capital Abidjan and the northern provinces indicate a comprehensive boycott of the presidential election yesterday. After the two principal oppositional presidential candidates were disqualified, the election lost its legitimacy. PANA reported that "voting got off to a slow, but calm start in the commercial capital, Abidjan." Observations at the poll stations indicated a "comprehensive boycott" among voters in Abidjan. However, the BBC's Barnaby Phillips in Abidjan says there were large queues in the Yopougon district, the stronghold of opposition leader, Laurent Gbagbo, who is the main challenger of the ruling general Guei. The BBC had observed the polling stations in the northern city of Korhogo, the powerbase of the charismatic former prime minister, Alassane Ouattara. Ouattara was the most probable challenger to general Guei before a disputed Supreme Court ruling barred him from standing as a candidate. - On Korhogo, two polling stations had no people in line and another had just four in a queue an hour after voting began, the BBC reported. "As you can see, the north is sleeping through this election," polling station worker, Drissa Dialo told the British broadcaster. More than five million Ivorians are eligible to vote in the presidential elections. The immigrant population, estimated at 40% of the total population of 15 millions, is not eligible to vote. "It is a choice between civilian and military rule," Laurent Gbagbo has described the vote after almost a year of military rule in Côte d'Ivoire. Not so many Ivorians agree with Gbagbo, who was an outsider until the principal opposition candidates were barred. Ouattara's supporters have called Gbagbo a "self-serving traitor" who "has betrayed us to connive with a dictatorship," according to PANA. Gbagbo's role in the elections indeed has been questionable, as he has been forced to play by the rules set by the Ivorian military ruler. Côte d'Ivoire, with its traditional hospitality to immigrants (and its plantation economy depending on the same immigrants) has slipped into xenophobic rhetorics under general Guei. Thus, the main reason for denying Ouattara to stand as a candidate, was his alleged prior Burkinabe citizenship - an allegation Ouattara has rejected and there has been found no proof of. Laurent Gbagbo has had to play in line with this new rhetoric to legitimate his candidacy to the election, boycotted by the major oppositional parties. Thus, according to PANA, Gbagbo in his campaign rally stated that "e in the FPI don't think that the post of president of the republic is the job for retired senior government officials from other countries. You can't just become president in one country, after serving as a senior civil servant in another," referring to the allegations that Ouattara had worked for Burkina Faso. After a dull electoral campaign and the legitimacy of the election disputed, the electorate has found substantial reason not to participate.
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