/ 8 November 2010

Opposition closes ranks in Côte d’Ivoire run-off vote

Opposition leaders in Côte d’Ivoire closed ranks on Sunday behind the remaining challenger to President Laurent Gbagbo in the presidential race.

Opposition leaders in Côte d’Ivoire closed ranks on Sunday behind the remaining challenger to President Laurent Gbagbo in the presidential race, after efforts to force a recount of the first round failed.

Former president Henri Konan Bedie, who came third in the first round and was thus eliminated from the run-off, on Sunday called on his supporters to vote for former prime minister Alassane Ouattara in the second-round vote.

In a surprise move late on Saturday, the Constitutional Council had announced definitive results from the first round of polling on October 31 that placed Gbagbo ahead.

It also set the second round for November 21 — seven days earlier than expected — only hours after Ouattara and third-place candidate Henri Konan Bedie had called for a recount of the first-round vote.

The council, which is presided by a close associate of Gbagbo, “has picked up speed” against an opposition still gearing up for battle, a diplomat told Agence France-Presse.

Major coup’
The diplomat described the council’s move as “a major coup” by Gbagbo, who scooped up 38% of the vote in the first round compared with Ouattara’s 32%.

Indeed, the council rebuffed recount demands by Ouattara and a coalition of four opposition parties including Bedie’s, saying they had not received any written complaints in time.

Bedie on Sunday finally threw his support behind Ouattara, with whom he had teamed up to create the Rally of Houphouetists for Democracy and Peace (RHDP) coalition.

After a meeting between Bedie and Ouattara, he read out a statement from the leaders of the RHDP opposition coalition.

“They call on their activists and supporters and all voters to immediately rally around this candidate,” he said.

“They urge them to turn out and vote in mass for Alassane Ouattara to ensure a brilliant victory for the RHDP.”

Bedie’s endorsement was part of an agreement made when the RHDP was formed in 2005, under which whoever made it to the second-round would get the endorsement of the failed candidate.

It could prove crucial for Ouattara.

Even the disputed first-round results gave Bedie 25,24% of the 4,5-million votes cast. If his supporters acted on this endorsement, it would, on paper at least, give Ouattara more than 50% of the vote.

It was not an easy rapprochement for the two politicians.

It was Bedie’s supporters, after all, who developed the nationalist concept of “Ivorian-ness” in the 1990s and tried to prove that Ouattara was ineligible for office on grounds he was of Burkinabe nationality — a claim he denied.

Gbagbo’s camp meanwhile has also been on the attack, with presidential spokesperson Pascal Affi N’Guessan describing Ouattara as “the godfather of the political violence and the rebellion” earlier this week.

Gbagbo’s supporters still see the former premier as behind the failed 2002 coup that sparked a civil war and occupation of the northern half of the country by New Forces (FN) rebels.

In particular, a meeting on Thursday between Ouattara and Senegalese President Abdoulaye Wade in Dakar has revived long-standing claims Ouattara is the “foreigners’ candidate”.

The meeting sparked a diplomatic row, with accusations by a Gbagbo aide that Senegal was conspiring to destabilise the run-off and Côte d’Ivoire recalling its ambassador from Dakar.

All these events suggest a fierce second-round of stumping ahead compared to the relatively calm first round vote.

Postponed half a dozen times over the past five years, the presidential election is meant to be a critical step in ending a political and military crisis that split this West African former economic powerhouse in two.

The international community has called for a peaceful process and for all candidates to respect the outcome of the polls. — Sapa-AFP