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Four Killed in Attack on Ivorian Candidate’s Office

02 December 2010 20:42 (UTC +04:00)

Baku-APA. Ivory Coast’s main opposition party says gunmen killed at least four people and wounded more than a dozen others during an attack at the office of presidential candidate Alassane Ouattara late Wednesday, APA reports quoting voanews.com website.

Witnesses and party officials say that about 45 men in masks stormed the office in the Abidjan district of Yopougon shortly before midnight. VOA correspondent Scott Stearns reports seeing blood on the floor, broken windows, and overturned furniture during a visit to the office Thursday.

Mr. Ouattara and President Laurent Gbagbo are locked in a tense dispute over the results of Sunday’s presidential runoff election.

The president’s campaign wants tallies from several pro-Ouattara regions nullified because of alleged intimidation and fraud. Ouattara’s party says the president knows he lost the election and is trying to stall.

The electoral commission missed a midnight Wednesday deadline to release results of the poll.

International observers say the runoff was generally free and fair, though the U.S.-based Carter Center reported election-day abuses that included ballot box stealing and destruction of voting materials.

This was Ivory Coast’s first presidential election in 10 years. A 2002 civil war split the country in two, leaving rebels in control of the north and the government in control of the south.

The country has struggled to organize an election despite a 2007 peace deal that made former rebel leader Guillame Soro prime minister.

President Gbagbo’s term officially ended in 2005, but he has stayed in office while disputes that postponed the election were ironed out.

The first round of voting in October passed peacefully, with Mr. Gbagbo winning 38 percent and Mr. Ouattara finishing second with 32 percent. Mr. Ouattara later won the endorsement of the third-place finisher, former President Henri Konan Bedie.