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Ivory Coast president party says rebels rigged poll

02 December 2010 03:15 (UTC +04:00)

Baku â€“ APA. President Laurent Gbagbo’s party accused rebels in the north of Ivory Coast on Wednesday of trying to steal a presidential run-off on behalf of the opposition and rejected still unpublished results, APA reports quoting â€œReutersâ€.
As international pressure grew on the west African state to release results from its disputed poll before Wednesday’s deadline, Gbagbo’s camp complained of rebel-led intimidation and said they would contest a vote that rival Alassane Ouattara’s party says has given him a clear win.
State television announced an overnight curfew due to end on Thursday had been extended until Sunday.
Allies of Ouattara, a northerner who denies having anything to do with the 2002-03 rebellion that split the country in two, have said Gbagbo is stalling the publication of results because he knows he has lost.
"We didn’t lose," Pascal Affi N’Guessan, Gbagbo’s campaign chief told journalists. "We have requested...a cancellation of the results in several regions of the north where clearly there was no vote, but on the contrary a masquerade to organize electoral fraud for the benefit of Alassane Ouattara."
He said no poll would be fair while rebels sympathetic to Ouattara ran half the country. Asked why Gbagbo’s camp accepted a poll under those conditions, he said: "you can’t ask someone whose house is burgled why they moved into that neighborhood."
Ouattara said on Wednesday the delay over the results was "unacceptable" and called on Gbagbo to stick by an agreement made ahead of the poll to respect the result, but he did not claim victory.
The head of the United Nations mission in Ivory Coast has noted violence and intimidation but called the vote democratic.
U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon called for the results to be published by the end of Wednesday. "(The U.N.) will continue to ... safeguard the electoral process so that the will of the Ivorian people as expressed in the election will be respected," he said in a statement.
Tensions over a poll aimed at stabilizing the world’s top cocoa grower turned to farce at a news conference late on Tuesday as pro-Gbagbo members of the election commission tore up results as the body’s spokesman tried to read them out.
N’Guessan accused commission senior officials of attempting to publish the results before a consensus was reached and spoke of intimidation by rebels armed with rocket launchers.
It is not clear what will happen if Gbagbo’s camp cannot persuade the electoral commission to annul northern votes or if no results are released by the deadline on Wednesday night, but the constitutional council must approve any final ruling.
Constitutional council President Paul Yao N’Dre is a staunch Gbagbo ally and member of his party. He overruled opposition first round challenges within three days of provisional results.
PRESSURE TO RELEASE RESULTS
Former colonial power France called for transparency and insisted the results be published on Wednesday, after U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Tuesday called on candidates not to interfere with the counting.
Cocoa futures spiked on Tuesday, after many Ivorian exporters fearful of possible street violence suspended trade.
Cocoa futures in London ended up 40 pounds or 2.7 percent at 1,895 pounds a tonne on Tuesday, but they reversed most of those gains by 12:53 p.m. EST on Wednesday, falling 48 pounds.
The yield on Ivory Coast’s $2.3 billion Eurobond has ticked slightly higher, reaching 10.8 percent compared to its pre-vote levels of just below 10 percent.
The poll has reopened the north-south divisions that caused the rebellion and there are fears of violence if one camp fears they have been robbed; but the streets of Abidjan were quiet.
"All we want is for them to tell us who won," said Florent Gbomeme, an unemployed resident. "If the country burns, we will all burn. It is the politicians who are manipulating us."
France has said there is no direct threat hanging over the 12,000-strong French expatriate community but has put the 900 French troops stationed in the country on alert to protect them.
The election body has said turnout was about 70 percent, down from more than 80 percent in the first round.
Gbagbo led after the first round with 38 percent of the vote compared to ex-IMF official Ouattara’s 32 percent score. But Ouattara received public endorsement from third-placed Henri Konan Bedie, who picked up 25 percent in the first round.