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Fears Of Ivorian Unrest After Ouattara Barred From Poll
by Caspar Leighton
ABIDJAN (AFP) - The Supreme Court in Ivory Coast has rejected the candidacy of controversial opposition leader Alassane Ouattara for parliamentary elections next month, raising fears of fresh unrest in the west African country.
The court said in a ruling broadcast on national radio Friday that there were doubts over the authenticity of Ouattara's identity documents and that the former prime minister could not "be considered to have proved his Ivorian nationality."
Isolated groups of Ouattara supporters took to the streets of Abidjan's working-class Treichville district shortly after the announcement, but there were quickly dispersed by police.
Ouattara had been barred from running in presidential elections in October by the same court, and also on the grounds of nationality. The court then said he had used the nationality of Ivory Coast's northern neighbor Burkina Faso.
Last week, however, the National Electoral Commission approved Ouattara's identity documents and his candidacy for general elections scheduled for December 10th, but several voters challenged the commission's decision.
The debate over Ouattara's nationality - and whether it excludes him from political power - has raged in Ivory Coast for several years now, but came to a violent head shortly after the presidential poll, when Ouattara supporters clashed with supporters of the new ruler Laurent Gbagbo.
At least 100 people died in those clashes, which followed a popular uprising to oust then military ruler General Robert Guei, who had claimed victory in the poll. At least 50 people had been killed in the earlier clashes.
The October unrest came at the end of ten months of military rule after Guei seized power on the back of a military uprising last December.
Before then, Ivory Coast had been seen as one of the most stable and prosperous countries in the region.
Currently in France, Ouattara refused to make any comment on the ruling.
But the number two in his Rally of Republicans (RDR) party, Henriette Diabate said: "It's a masquerade, we cannot accept this."
"The president of the RDR should not be excluded. These are moves to exclude a whole part of the population," she added, ahead of an RDR meeting on Saturday to decide on the party's response to the court decision.
Overall, the situation in the country's economic capital was calm on Friday.
There was no major deployment of security forces, though two Alphajets of the Ivorian air force made several flyovers of the city on Friday morning.
The former colonial power France on Friday slammed the ruling, saying that it would prevent the voters concerned from freely expressing their will.
"It is clear that the invalidation of Alassane Ouattara's candidacy can only cast a slur on the preparations for the election," said a foreign ministry spokesman.
Ouattara announced his decision to run for the northern Kong constituency after a meeting with France's Development Aid Minister Charles Josselin on November 14th.
Josselin said then that the restoration of foreign aid to Ivory Coast was dependent on the holding of democratic elections in which "all political sensibilities" are represented.
Several ministers in Gbagbo's government have said they were against Ouattara standing, but the government has insisted on the independence of the Supreme Court.
Many observers, however, question the impartiality of the Supreme Court's Constitutional Chamber, whose head, Tia Kone, and all its members, were appointed by Guei.
Gbagbo benefited from the court's exclusion of his political rivals in the presidential election.
The court has once again sidelined his rival.
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