ABIDJAN, Oct 24 (AFP) - Ivory Coast was on tenterhooks Tuesday as it
awaited official results from a weekend presidential poll through which
military ruler General Robert Guei wants to hang on to power, as his main
civilian challenger Laurent Gbagbo claimed victory.
   A tense calm had returned to the streets of Abidjan, the commercial
capital, after security forces on Monday violently quelled protests over
delays by the National Electoral Commission (CNE) in releasing results from
the Sunday polls.
   Official figures from the vote -- the first step in Ivory Coast's return
to
civilian rule after 10 turbulent months under Guei's military regime -- were
expected to be released at 11:00 a.m. (1100 GMT) on Tuesday.
   The delay, which fuelled fears that the government was trying to rig the
figures, triggered protests by supporters of Gbagbo, who claims to have
captured 61 percent of the vote.
   Soldiers used truncheons and tear gas to break up the demonstrations on
Monday.
   On Tuesday, activity in Abidjan had returned to normal, with buses and
taxis functioning normally, and shops open, although some schools near the
electoral commission sent their pupils home.
   Early results released Monday showed that Gbagbo, a 55-year-old history
professor, had captured 51 percent of the votes against 40 percent for Guei,
but the figures were based on only eight percent of the ballots cast.
   Overall turnout among an estimated 5.4 million registered voters has not
been officially announced.
   On Monday, soldiers entered the CNE offices in Abidjan, barred
journalists
from entering the building and spread panic among staff there.
   CNE chief Honore Guie appeared on national television to dispel rumours
that he had been arrested.
   The independent daily newspaper Le Jour said the military ruler's "young
people" had barged into the commission because they were "unhappy with
initial
electoral results."
   The paper said the soldiers had unplugged the commission's computers and
attempted to arrest Guie.
   In an interview with a French private radio station in Paris, Gbagbo
called
on Guei to step aside and hand over power. "If he (Guei) has lost, let him
hand over power to me; there is no other solution," he told Europe 1 radio.
   Gbagbo claimed he had captured 61 percent of the vote from more than half
the votes tallied by his party in a parallel count to that of the electoral
commission.
   Once a stable and relatively prosperous nation, Ivory Coast has been
gripped by mounting political and military unrest. Financial aid has all but
dried up, sending its struggling economy into crisis.
   The credibility of Sunday's vote has been seriously damaged because of a
controversial ruling by the Supreme Court which barred all but five of 19
presidential candidates from standing in the poll.
   As a result, the Organisation of African Unity and the European Union
decided not to send any election observers apart from the 30 EU long-term
observers already in place.
   A main opposition rival excluded from the vote, Alassane Ouattara, said
he
did not believe that Guei was ready to hand over power.
   "I don't know if he'll be beaten by the ballot, but in any case,
everything
suggests that General Guei is not ready to hand over power," Ouattara, a
former prime minister of Ivory Coast, told French state radio in Paris.
   Ouattara, who was barred from running because authorities said he used a
foreign diplomatic passport in the 1970s and could not prove his Ivorian
parentage, called the election a sham.
   He also said his party, the Rally of Republicans, would not recognise an
eventual victory of Gbagbo.
   "No, no, we will not recognise it. We consider these elections
illegitimate
because the procedures were corrupted from the start. The main candidates
were
not allowed to participate," Ouattara said.
   sa/jlr/gd

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