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Defying international pressure, incumbent takes office in Ivory Coast

05 December 2010 03:36 (UTC +04:00)

Baku-APA. Laurent Gbagbo was sworn in Saturday for another term as president of the Ivory Coast, despite international concerns about whether he rightfully won a recent runoff election, APA reports quoting CNN.
Gbagbo takes office amid tensions that escalated Friday, as the west African country’s Constitutional Council invalidated earlier results from the Independent Electoral Commission that named opposition candidate Alassane Ouattara the winner.
With his credibility in question, Gbagbo appeared at Saturday’s ceremony in the capital, Abidjan, to a room full of supporters. In taking office, he defied calls from international leaders to respect the will of the Ivorian voters.
The Constitutional Council said Friday that Gbagbo had won the election with 54.1 % of the vote to Ouattara’s 45.9 %. It tossed out votes it said were marred by fraud in northern regions that were considered Ouattara strongholds.
The day before, the electoral panel had named Ouattara the winner with 54.1% of the votes.
It was the job of Y.J. Choi, the special envoy in the Ivory Coast of U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, to review and sign off on the results. Choi said that, even if Gbagbo’s complaints were taken into consideration, Ouattara was the winner.
"Having evaluated all the tally sheets, 20,000 of them yesterday evening, we are in a position to know what happened really," Choi told CNN in a telephone interview from Abidjan. "With absolute certainty, we know that Ouattara won the election."
U.S. President Barack Obama and French President Nicolas Sarkozy congratulated Ouattara.
Sarkozy urged the military and civilian officials to respect the will of the people. Obama warned Gbagbo: "The international community will hold those who act to thwart the democratic process and the will of the electorate accountable for their actions."
Ouattara, a former economist for the International Monetary Fund who served as prime minister, had been banned from previous races.
Gbagbo’s critics said the incumbent stoked tensions by accusing Ouattara of masterminding the 2002 civil war. Ouattara has denied the allegation.
Once a prosperous nation and a driving force in West Africa, the Ivory Coast plunged into instability after fighting erupted between the government-held south and discontented Muslim rebels living in the north.
Thousands of people died in the conflict. Now, Gbagbo’s return to power in a disputed election could lead to more bloodshed as violent clashes have erupted on the streets of Abidjan.