Côte d’Ivoire presidential claimant Allasane Ouattara rejected on Friday an African Union (AU) call to share power with defeated president Laurent Gbagbo’s supporters, calling it “illogical”.
The AU endorsed Ouattara as president-elect on Thursday and recommended the formation of a government involving all political parties and civil society, while ensuring “all the necessary guarantees” for Gbagbo when he steps down.
Gbagbo has refused to relinquish power in the world’s biggest cocoa producer, arguing that the United Nations-certified election results showing he lost to Ouattara in a run-off last November 28 was rigged.
“You can’t have people elected and say you have to share power,” Ouattara told a meeting with diplomats and directors of international organisations based in Addis Ababa.
“How can I share with someone who has been in power for 10 years and whom Ivorians didn’t vote for? It’s illogical,” he added.
‘For the process of reconciliation’
Ouattara, who has been living under UN protection in a hotel in Abidjan since December, said the AU decision allowed him to choose “competent people from other parties for the process of reconciliation”.
Gbagbo’s envoys to the meeting also rejected the AU proposal to end the violent power struggle and warned that Côte d’Ivoire risked a return to civil war.
Ouattara said he would fly to Nigeria next for talks with President Goodluck Jonathan and stay there a few days.
Gbagbo’s government said on Thursday that flights by the UN mission in Côte d’Ivoire (UNOCI) were banned from landing anywhere in the country, though the mission does not recognise Gbagbo’s authority and has defied several demands that it leave.
A spokesperson for UN secretary general Ban Ki-moon said in a statement the UNOCI would maintain flight operations and take all necessary measures, as directed by UN Security Council resolutions, to fulfil its mandate.
Cocoa seizure was ‘stealing’
After months of political wrangling following a disputed election, the Ivorian power struggle has strangled the cocoa sector of the world’s top grower, leaving the cocoa in storage in the country.
State television reported on Monday that Gbagbo had issued a decree under which the state becomes the sole purchaser of cocoa in the world’s top grower and handles its export to world markets.
France, Britain and the United States have all condemned Gbagbo’s move to control the sector as tantamount to theft. Ouattara also condemned the move.
“It is not nationalisation. It is stealing because clearly, as they did with the banks, they are trying to rob people and businesses — both Ivorian and foreign,” he told journalists after the meeting.
“Obviously they are not looking for the welfare of the people of [Côte d’Ivoire]. But this will change in a few days.”
Ouattara expressed confidence that his country’s battered economy would be back on track in a few years. — Reuters