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Ivory Coast Elections In Balance After Call For Delay
by Caspar Leighton
ABIDJAN (AFP) - Ivory Coast's parliamentary vote due Sunday hung in the balance late Saturday after a mediation committee recommended a delay to allow opposition participation.
Government ministers went into emergency session immediately after the Mediation Committee for National Reconciliation announced its recommendations Saturday afternoon, at the end of marathon talks with the opposition Rally of Republicans (RDR).
Committee secretary general Ouraga Obou said in a statement the RDR "had agreed to take part in the elections" if they are postponed.
The RDR had called for a boycott of the vote after its leader Alassane Ouattara was barred by the Supreme Court from standing in the poll, provoking countrywide demonstrations and calls for secession by the party's northern heartland.
Analysts believed a postponement of the poll would go some way to calming the highly-charged situation currently existing in Ivory Coast, where the poll has been threatened by open rebellion in the north, Ouattara's support base.
RDR supporters, incensed by the Supreme Court ruling, have attacked administrative buildings and chased out government administrators, while security forces have come under fire.
Police and soldiers moved in Saturday morning after young Ouattara supporters set up barricades and burned tires in the main northern city of Korhogo.
Security forces chased demonstrators as thick smoke was seen rising from the working class Koko area.
A security cordon was deployed Saturday morning around the prefecture in anticipation of an attack.
The rest of the town reported calm, but only half the stalls in the central market were open.
By mid afternoon, the situation was calming and security forces had begun clearing the barricades.
The Supreme Court barred Ouattara, a Muslim northerner, after questioning his Ivorian nationality. He was also prevented from contesting the October 22nd presidential election on the same grounds.
The country has been under a state of emergency since clashes Monday and Tuesday between RDR supporters and security forces left dozens of people dead.
The European Union, the United Nations and the Organization for African Unity (OAU) announced during the week they had reversed their decision to deploy observers for the elections because they did not believe conditions existed for a free and fair vote.
The Mediation Committee for National Reconciliation, appointed by the government negotiate with the RDR, recommended the postponement of elections in Ouattara's constituency of Kong, to allow a re-examination of his barring.
More generally, it recommended "the postponement of the elections to a date allowing the RDR to conduct an election campaign in a satisfactory manner, taking into account the curfew currently in place."
Official sources have mentioned a possible one-week postponement.
In return, the RDR "agrees to participate in the general elections and invite its candidates to conduct a peaceful campaign," said the statement.
Reacting to the announcement, RDR secretary general Henriette Diabate called for calm and RDR participation in elections "on the condition that the recommendations of the committee are adopted".
Interior Minister Emile Boga Doudou on Friday raised the possibility of postponing the vote in the troubled northern constituencies.
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