REUTERS, Abidjan | Thursday
IVORY Coast’s military ruler, General Robert Guei, has completed a cabinet reshuffle prompted by an alleged assassination attempt, promoting loyalists and sacking those marked as opponents.
Guei’s move came as his military junta agreed to study a series of proposals put forward by African leaders to resolve the country’s political crisis, including an Organisation of African Unity (OAU) recommendation that a presidential election scheduled for October 22 be delayed and a parliamentary vote be held first.
The OAU, which has set up a 10-nation committee to monitor the situation in Ivory Coast, also urged the military junta and the country’s political parties to work towards a consensus on who should be allowed to stand in the presidential election.
Guei’s supporters have criticised the recommendations, saying they contravene a constitution adopted by a landslide referendum vote in July which includes strict nationality requirements for presidential candidates.
These might rule out former prime minister Alassane Ouattara, whose candidacy has been at the heart of the crisis since before the December 1999 coup.
Ouattara’s opponents say he is not an Ivorian national, so has no right to stand in the election in which Guei himself is a candidate. Ouattara says he meets all the criteria laid down in the constitution.
A presidential decree read out on state television appointed Honore Douty, previously secretary-general for defence, as deputy minister for defence, a portfolio Guei has held since taking power in a December coup.
The decree said the appointment “modifies and completes the government list” issued on September 22, when Guei sacked his second and third in command and reshuffled his cabinet.
The junta said the two, Security Minister General Lassana Palenfo and Transport Minister General Abdoulaye Coulibaly, had fled after being implicated in an alleged plot to kill Guei.
Guei says his Abidjan residence was attacked by a group of young soldiers in the early hours of September 18 in a bid to kill him, but diplomats and independent media have questioned the official version of events.
Palenfo and Coulibaly are both regarded as associates of Ouattara.