   |
|
Misanet.com / IRIN , 28 October - Truckloads of heavily armed police and gendarmes continued to patrol Abidjan on Friday after three days of unrest in the Ivorian commercial capital and other major towns. The unrest began when junta leader General Robert Guei declared himself winner of Sunday's presidential election. Thousands of people took to the streets on Tuesday and Wednesday in a mass movement that culminated in Guei's departure, and in which about 60 people died, mainly at the hands of the security forces. The country's new president, Laurent Gbagbo, was inaugurated on Thursday after the Supreme Court confirmed that he had won 59.4 percent of the vote to Guei's 32.7 percent. Gbagbo's campaign director, Affi N'Guessan, was appointed prime minister on Friday. N'Guessan had been minister of industry and tourism in Guei's government, which had included representatives of some political parties. About 63 percent of the electorate stayed away from the poll after the former ruling Parti democratique de Cote d'Ivoire (PDCI) and the Rassemblement des Republicains (RDR) called for a boycott to protest the disqualification of their presidential candidates. While the PDCI accepted Gbagbo's victory, the RDR said new elections should be held. RDR supporters demonstrated on Wednesday and again on Thursday, when they clashed with the security forces and supporters of Gbagbo's Front Populaire Ivoirien (FPI). The RDR said about 40 of their people died. Ethnic violence Thursday's incidents were followed by televised appeals for calm by officials of the FPI and RDR, religious leaders and NGO officials. However, there was shooting between Thursday night and Friday morning in Abobo, area residents told IRIN. On Friday morning IRIN saw a dead body on a main road in that area. In his inaugural speech on Thursday, Gbagbo called on Ivorians to demonstrate "pardon, tolerance and solidarity" and said he would form a unity government. Since then, he has had talks with other political leaders, including a meeting with Ouattara on Friday. Speaking to journalists after the meeting, Ouattara did not repeat his call for new presidential elections and implicitly recognised Gbagbo as president, according to AFP. "President Gbagbo explained to me the time constraints that he has, and we agreed that he could, if he wishes, go ahead with the formation of a government today without the RDR and that, in any case, legislative elections are set for December and we can re-examine these questions after the legislative elections," AFP quoted Ouattara as saying. International calls for new elections The US State Department said the election "was failed and fundamentally flawed from the outset due to the exclusion of major party candidates and other machinations leading up to the election". Deputy Spokesman Philip Reeker added that it was "going to be very important for the voices of the disenfranchised Ivorians to be heard" and therefore "the holding of free, fair and inclusive elections will be needed to fully restore the government of Cote d'Ivoire's legitimacy and bring democracy back to Cote d'Ivoire". A UN spokesman said UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan "believes that there is now an opportunity to put in place a democratic political process that will allow the people of Cote d'Ivoire to freely elect their representatives". Annan "appeals to all political forces to work towards this end", the spokesman said. The OAU, which had tried in vain to get the Guei government to hold more inclusive presidential elections after the Supreme Court disqualified 14 of the 19 candidates, has also called for new polls. Gbagbo has insisted that he will not hold new presidential elections. Instead, he invited political parties to prepare for the rest of the electoral timetable set by the previous transitional government, starting with parliamentary polls on 10 December. He said his first priority would be to revamp the defence and security system so as to reconcile the nation with its armed forces and ensure the security of people and property. Social and economic rebirth are also high on his priority list. Friday prayers went on smoothly in mosques of the 10 communes of Abidjan where no incident was reported, PANA reports. Several mosques were burnt Thursday during the clashes, which left dozens of casualties.
|
