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Ivory Coast Ruling Party Stretches Lead In Elections
by Caspar Leighton
ABIDJAN (AFP) - With more than half the votes counted, Ivory Coast's ruling Ivorian Popular Front (FPI) Monday stretched its lead in a controversial general election hit by an opposition boycott after a week of political bloodletting.
The latest tally released by the National Electoral Commission showed that the FPI of President Laurent Gbagbo had taken 83 of the 171 seats so far declared.
The former ruling Ivory Coast Democratic Party (PDCI) was second with 68 seats, while three minor parties had won four seats between them. Independent candidates had taken 15 seats.
One seat went to the Rally of Republicans (RDR), despite a boycott call by the party, which draws much of its support from the Muslim north and is led by former prime minister Alassane Ouattara.
The RDR boycotted the election after the Supreme Court barred Ouattara from standing because of doubts cast over his nationality. Authorities allege he is not Ivorian, which he denies.
Results were still to be announced for the remainder of the 225 seats that were up for grabs in Sunday's poll.
Electoral commission president Honore Guie gave no overall figures for participation, although the turnout was reported to be generally extremely low and there was no voting at all in 29 constituencies in the RDR's northern heartland.
In the main northern city of Korhogo, where a PDCI candidate won the Korhogo-Commune constituency with 83% of the vote, turnout was lowest with only 4,977 voters out of 59,921 going to the polls.
The RDR, whose stronghold Kong is nearby, received only 66 votes.
The authorities pressed on with the poll despite an international outcry at Ouattara's exclusion, which led the U.N., the European Union (EU) and the Organization of African Unity (OAU) to withdraw its observers, saying conditions did not exist for a free and fair poll.
The parliament will be the first of the Second Republic, established 10 months after the only coup in Ivory Coast's history toppled the PDCI regime of Henri Konan Bedie in December 1999.
In the previous parliament, the FPI held just 12 seats.
RDR secretary general Henriette Diabate Monday stood by her party's decision to boycott the vote.
"Ivorians and the international community were able to see that the vote took place under threat," Diabate said.
The commercial capital Abidjan "was dead, the majority of the electorate did not express itself, nobody dared or wanted to vote," she said.
Gbagbo imposed a state of emergency and a curfew after security forces crushed RDR demonstrations on December 4th and 5th, leaving dozens dead and hundreds wounded.
RDR supporters were protesting over the Supreme Court decision to bar Ouattara from standing in the poll.
In the days that followed, violent clashes ensued and, according to the Ivorian Human Rights Movement, more than 1,000 RDR supporters were detained.
"This is not an atmosphere to be proud of," Diabate said.
Asked about the lone RDR member who had so far been elected, Diabate said that the candidate from Tehini in the northeast had not respected the boycott and "will not represent the RDR in parliament".
The RDR had made an eleventh hour attempt to have the election postponed to allow the re-examination of Ouattara's eligibility and an eventual participation in the vote.
The neutral Mediation Committee for National Reconciliation recommended a postponement after meeting the RDR the day before the election, but Gbagbo's government refused.
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