From Reuters
Ivory Coast Sets Civilian-Rule
Election Dates
Friday, May 12, 2000
By Anne Boher
ABIDJAN, Ivory Coast (Reuters) - Ivory
Coast's military ruler
General Robert Guei and his junta, under
pressure at home and
abroad to restore civilian rule, said
Friday presidential elections
would be held Sept. 17.
A statement, read by a spokesman for the
junta on state
television's main evening news, said the
vote would be preceded
by a referendum on a new constitution July
23 and be followed by
parliamentary elections Oct. 29.
"The National Public Salvation Committee
has adopted the
following timetable," said the spokesman,
who was wearing military
fatigues, before listing the dates.
The army staged the West African country's
first coup d'etat on
Dec. 24, ousting elected President Henri
Konan Bedie and installing
Guei. He promised a referendum on a
revised constitution by the
end of April but wrangling over the text
meant the deadline was
missed.
Guei, who has kept the former French
colony guessing about
whether he will run himself, held
successive meetings Friday with
ministers, diplomats and the
secretary-general of the Organization
of African Unity (OAU), Salim Ahmed Salim.
Salim said a precise timetable had not
been discussed then
although Guei had reaffirmed his
commitment to holding elections
before the end of October.
Guei said on taking power that he did not
seek political office and
only wanted to rid the country of the
xenophobia and corruption
that had characterized the Bedie
government.
One declared candidate is Alassane
Ouattara, a former deputy
managing director of the International
Monetary Fund who was at
the heart of a political crisis leading up
to the coup.
Bedie's Democratic Party (PDCI) maintained
he was a national of
Burkina Faso and therefore ineligible to
stand for president.
The issue has delayed the drawing up of a
new constitution.
The new constitution could disqualify
Ouattara from running
because of doubts about his mother's
nationality -- a requirement
may be to have two Ivorian-born parents --
and allegations that
he registered as a student and took a
central bank job as a
national of Burkina Faso.
The international community has pressed
for a speedy return to
civilian rule, and the resumption of
foreign aid that Ivory Coast
desperately needs is largely dependent on
elections being held.
If no candidate wins 50 percent of the
vote in the presidential
election on Sept. 17, a second round will
be held on Oct. 8.
Municipal elections will take place on
Nov. 19.
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