ICoast-vote,sched-lead Ivory Coast calm calm but tense after Ouattara's disqualification by Caspar Leighton ATTENTION - REPETITON, adding sched mention, ADDS details, background, quotes /// ABIDJAN, Oct 7 (AFP) - The feared unrest following Friday night's disqualification of oppostion presidential candidate Alassane Ouattara failed to materialise here as the streets remained deserted Saturday morning. The city was under curfew from 9:00 pm (2100 GMT) Friday and as the military patrolled overnight in the more militant suburbs, people stayed at home. The curfew lifted at 6:00 am (0600 GMT) Saturday morning and there was very little military presence in any part of the city. Most people were still staying at home with many shops remaining closed. Ouattara, a former prime minister and leader of the Rally of Republicans (RDR) called for calm after hearing of his disqualification from the presidential poll set for October 22. People appeared to have heeded his call in most of the capital's residential quarters, residents said. The military government announced a curfew Wednesday, after an explosion killed four people and injured seven in the afternoon, and further imposed a state of emergency that took effect at 6:00 am (0600 GMT) Friday. The ruling by the constitutional chamber of the Supreme Court disqualified all but five of the 19 presidential candidates, including most of those considered serious challengers to military leader Robert Guei. Guei will run against four other candidates, the only other heavyweight candidate included in the vote being Laurent Gbagbo, leader of the Ivorian Popular Front (FPI). The FPI won the same number of seats as Ouattara's RDR in the last election. Ouattara, who was barred from running over doubts over his nationality, denounced the court's ruling as "a masquerade." The list of approved candidates had been approved by Guei, who only wanted adversaries he could easily beat, he said. Ouattara was considered by many observers to be a major electoral threat to Guei. The court ruling that barred him from running was neither legal nor democratic, he told AFP. He cited the fact that all five candidates of the former ruling Democratic Party of Ivory Coast (PDCI) were among those eliminated from the running as further evidence of Guei's desire to fix the electoral race in his favour. Among the barred PDCI candidates was Henri Konan Bedie, the man Guei ousted as president in last year's December 24 coup. Emile Constant Bombet, the official PDCI candidate and Bedie's former interior minister, was also ruled ineligible to run. PDCI secretary general Laurent Dona Fologo told AFP he was "disappointed and surprised" by the decision to bar his party's candidate. The court said it had rejected Bombet because of legal proceedings against him. That meant he did not fulfil the constitutional requirements of "sound morality and integrity", said the court. Both the RDR and the PDCI were meeting Saturday to consider their next move. There is no appeal available against the Supreme Court's decision. crl/jj ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe/subscribe or view archives of postings, go to the Gambia-L Web interface at: http://maelstrom.stjohns.edu/archives/gambia-l.html You may also send subscription requests to [log in to unmask] if you have problems accessing the web interface and remember to write your full name and e-mail address. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------