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KORHOGO (AFP) - Voter turnout for Ivory Coast's presidential election was low in the northern city of Korhogo, which is home to mainly Muslim Ivorians who support Alassane Ouattara, an opposition leader who was excluded from the polls. Quattara, a former prime minister and leader of the Rally of Republicans (RDR), called for a boycott of the vote after the Supreme Court barred him from running. The court ruling said the opposition leader, who is Muslim, had used a foreign diplomatic passport in the 1970s and could not prove that both his parents were Ivorian. The Supreme Court decision, handed down by a former personal legal advisor to military ruler General Robert Guei, disqualified a total of 14 out of 19 presidential candidates, leaving only Guei and Ivorian Popular Front leader Laurent Gbagbo as serious contenders. Guei came to power in the country's first coup last December. Ivory Coast, whose politics have been traditionally dominated by Christians from the south, has become increasingly divided along ethnic and religious lines in the run-up to Sunday's vote. Guei's opponents have accused the military ruler of fueling anti-foreign, anti-Muslim sentiments in the once stable, relatively prosperous nation. Gbagbo too has been criticized for running an ethnocentric campaign. Meanwhile, around Korhogo, security forces were maintaining a very low profile. "The vote is taking place in excellent conditions," said Philippe Legre, regional president of the National Electoral Commission. At the Soba primary school, the first voter turned up at 8:00 am as the polling station opened. Seventy-year-old Sekongo N'gana said he was "happy and proud to have fulfilled his civic duty." The elderly man's satisfaction was in contrast to the anger of young inhabitants of the Koko suburb, where a large poster of Guei has been defaced with black paint. "We have not voted," said 22-year old Amara. "We are following our party's orders." |
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