Côte d’Ivoire’s presidential election scheduled for November 30 is ”technically impossible” this year and will be postponed to 2009, an official at the Independent Electoral Commission (CEI) said on Friday.
”The presidential election will be postponed to 2009, that’s for sure,” said the official, who asked not to be named, adding that voter registration was behind schedule. A new date might not be formally announced until mid-November.
The vote due on November 30, which had already been delayed several times since 2005 in the world’s number-one cocoa grower, was expected to cement a 2007 peace deal between President Laurent Gbagbo and northern rebels, who fought a 2002/03 civil war.
But in recent weeks, both Gbagbo and the New Forces rebels who are part of a coalition government that emerged from the peace deal have acknowledged delays in disarmament and voter enrolment, and have indicated a postponement is likely.
”The presidential election cannot be held this year. It’s technically impossible when you look at the work to be done on the ground to register all the voters,” said the CEI official.
He requested anonymity because the formal public announcement of a postponement has not yet been made.
”We can’t announce it now so as not to break the momentum of [voter] registration among the people,” the official added. — Reuters