The military junta in Ivory Coast have announced a state of emergency and
curfew this weekend when the candidates approved to run in the Presidential
election will be announced.
The measure is aimed at maintaining public order ahead of the election to
restore civilian rule.

The move came as four people were killed and seven were wounded in Ivory
Coast's main city Abidjan when a bomb they were planning to plant exploded.



According to state television the four people killed were Nigerian
nationals.

No one was immediately available for comment at the Nigerian embassy in
Abidjan, where two senior members of Ivory Coast's military junta have taken
refuge after being implicated in what junta leader General Robert Guei says
was a plot to kill him.

Generals Lassana Palenfo and Abdoulaye Coulibaly have been charged along
with 15 other soldiers in connection with an attack on General Guei's home
in September.

Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo earlier this week ruled out handing
over the two generals until their safety was fully guaranteed.



Communications Minister Henri Cesar Sama said the state of emergency would
run from Friday morning to Monday morning, allowing the interior minister to
control circulation, ban meetings and close venues as needed "to guarantee
peace."

A curfew would be in effect over the same period.

The Supreme Court is due to rule by midnight on Saturday on which candidates
can stand in a presidential election due on 22 October.

There has been bitter debate about the eligibility of former Prime Minister
Alassane Ouattara.





Junta leader General Robert Guei, who is also an election candidate, came to
power after a coup on 24 December last year.

It was the first coup in the history of the 40-year-old nation.

It, and two military uprisings since then, have shaken the country's
standing as a valued centre of stability in troubled West Africa.



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