by Bryan Pearson ABIDJAN, Jan 22 (AFP) - Outgoing finance minister Mamadou Koulibaly was elected parliamentary speaker Monday when Ivory Coast's parliament met for the first time since the military staged a coup in December 1999. Members of the newly-elected legislature overwhelming backed Koulibaly, a member of President Laurent Gbagbo's Ivorian Popular Front (FPI) and, significantly, a northerner; he amassed 213 of the 216 votes cast. The sitting of parliament and the election of the speaker, the second most powerful position in the land, mark further steps along the road to full restoration of elected government in the troubled west African country. Analysts said the choice of Koulibaly was significant in that he hails from the north of the country, where members of a rival political party, the Rally of Republicans (RDR), boycotted legislative elections in December and January in protest at the exclusion of their leader, Alassane Ouattara, after his nationalisty was challenged. Gbagbo has been at pains to counter claims by the RDR that the Christian-dominated south is sidelining from political institutions the mainly Muslim north. The other candidate for Monday's vote, outgoing interior minister Emile Boga Doudou, withdrew from the contest at the beginning of the session. Three ballot papers were spoiled. The formerly ruling Ivory Coast Democratic Party (PDCI), which did not put up a candidate, announced at the beginning of the parliamentary session it, too, would rally behind Koulibaly. In the elections for the 225 legislative seats -- two of which remain vacant -- the FPI won 96 seats to 94 for the PDCI. The FPI has since concluded a parliamentary alliance with 14 of 22 deputies elected as independents. The 14 were expelled from the PDCI, which held power for four decades before the coup, after supporting the candidacy of former military ruler General Robert Guei in presidential elections in October. Guei, who swept to power in the country's first-ever putsch on Christmas Eve 1999, ran in presidential polls 10 months later but was accused of rigging the vote. The general was routed by a popular uprising and Gbagbo, a longtime socialist opposition leader, was declared the winner. Other parties represented in the assembly are the Ivorian Workers' Party (PIT, an ally of the FPI) with four seats, and the Movement of Forces for the Future and the Ivory Coast Union of Democrats, with one seat each. The RDR won five seats despite its boycott, in what a party official described as "an error". The party announced at the weekend that the five deputies would not take their places in the new assembly. The Ivory Coast government resigned on Sunday to allow some ministers elected to parliament to take their seats -- the country's constitution does not allow a person to hold a post of minister at the same times as that of MP. Gbagbo immediately re-appointed Pascal Affi N'Guessan as prime minister and gave him 72 hours to name a new government "which takes into account the political configuration of Ivory Coast today." Nine ministers were elected as members of parliament. Koulibaly, 43, an economics professor, has been minister since January 2000 -- first in the transitional government following the coup, and then in the government of Gbagbo after he assumed office. so-bp/jlr ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- 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. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------