REUTERS, Lome | Thursday
THE Organisation of African Unity (OAU) has followed the lead of the United Nations in withdrawing all monitors and observers from Ivory Coast’s presidential election this weekend in protest at the exclusion of most major candidates.
Critics both in Ivory Coast and abroad say the poll is unrepresentative after the supreme court barred many would-be candidates, leaving Socialist Laurent Gbagbo the only political heavyweight challenging military ruler General Robert Guei.
The elections pit Guei, who took power in a December 24 military coup, against four other candidates. Soon after the coup, the military leader promised a smooth transition to civilian-led democracy but has since exchanged his uniform for a suit-and-tie.
The Supreme Court excluded Ivory Coast’s main opposition leader, Alassane Dramane Ouattara, as well as former president Henri Konan Bedie and the current leader of Bedie’s former ruling party, Emile Constant Bombet.
Until the Christmas Eve coup, Ivory Coast was long considered one of Africa’s most stable nations and a bastion of regional stability.
Guei has rejected calls from OAU leaders to delay the election to allow time for mediation to end the political crisis compounded by the country’s first coup in December.
The former ruling Democratic Party, which had a huge majority in the ousted parliament, and the Rally of the Republicans of former Prime Minister Alassane Ouattara, have both called for a peaceful boycott of the poll.
The United Nations development arm, UNDP, dropped plans to coordinate international observers, after many countries opted against sending anyone to monitor the poll.
The OAU has also asked the Francophonie club of French-speaking nations to drop plans to send observers.
Officials said the European Union has sent a reduced mission of 28 observers to monitor the poll. The National Elections Observatory, made up of non-governmental organisations active in Ivory Coast, plans to put around 100 observers in the field.
Gbagbo’s Ivorian Popular Front (FPI) said it will have observers in every polling station to stop fraud, and called on the international community to send monitors.