SILVIA ALOISI, Abidjan | Tuesday
THE organisers of Ivory Coast’s presidential poll have delayed the release of the election results, raising fears among supporters of Socialist Laurent Gbagbo that the ruling junta may be trying to cheat him of victory.
A National Electoral Commission (CNE) official said it would resume announcing results after a 12-hour pause, but did not say whether the Commission would give final or partial results.
Officials at the campaign headquarters of Gbagbo, who was leading when the flow of results dried up on Monday morning, said they had computed their own results and were confident their leader had defeated army ruler General Robert Guei.
”We have the results. We are calm,” said Affi N’Guessan, Gbagbo’s campaign director.
He warned the party would not stand idly by in case of irregularities, but did not denounce any fraud.
”They can’t steal our victory, we would react if they tried to. We are a party built on struggle,” he said.
Earlier, paramilitary gendarmes used teargas to disperse several hundred Gbagbo supporters in Abidjan’s colourful Treichville district as they headed for the CNE to demand the immediate release of the remaining results.
Preliminary official results put Gbagbo ahead with 51.35% of votes cast in Sunday’s election. They gave Guei 40.4% of votes cast.
The results came from constituencies accounting for less than 8% of the electorate but the trend, if continued, would be enough to secure outright victory in the first round.
Diplomats and others wondered whether the army, who took power with a coup last December, would be ready to hand over to a civilian president in case of defeat.
Gbagbo, 55, and Guei, 59, were the only serious contenders in a field of five after the supreme court barred most candidates from running. – Reuters