Sunday, December 12, 2010

Elections in Ivory Coast

Friday, 3 Dec, Laurent Gbagbo's supporters claim that the results announced by the electoral commission, giving victory to Alassane Ouattara, are not valid, since they were not announced within the required timeframe. It seems everybody is being too tactful to point out that it was the Gbagbo camp that prevented the results from being published (Africa Today, Tues (30 Nov), Weds (1 Dec)).

It is then surprising that François Hollande, former leader of the Parti socialiste in France, called for outside powers, especially the ex-colonial power to avoid interfering, that is to not speak out against Gbagbo. (However, the PS, regardless of having supported Gbagbo in the past, in general have now called on him to step down (1)).

Before long, the ground is shifting: the votes from the Northern provinces are cancelled, on the grounds that voters were intimidated. These of course are the provinces where Ouattara was most strongly supported. The line now, repeated ad nauseam, is that only the Constitutional Council is empowered to pronounce the result. "Gbagbo's ambassador" (Pierre Kipre) on Europe 1 radio (2) .

Some brain-dead people, for example listeners commenting on the BBC WS, say this is just like the US in 2000. So, Bush received only 46% of the vote to Gore's 54, whereupon the Supreme Court knocked out the votes of a few Democrat states, is that what happened then ? These comments seem to come from the West: most listeners in Africa seem to be appalled at the hijack of the vote.

Saturday 4 Dec, BBC WS, Newshour (21:00) has the woman reporting for NPR on. It is suggested that Gbagbo is a prisoner of his own camp especially his wife, Simone, with interests to defend.

(8:00) Sunday 5 Dec, BBC WS, World Today (3), the woman from NPR is on again. BBC WS and Radio France internationale broadcasts have been taken off the air.

Monday 6 Dec, the man named as Ouattara's Prime minister is on Europe 1: although he was formerly Gbagbo's PM, he says that as a Christian he cannot now in conscience continue to work for him (4).

Ivory Coast awaits Gbagbo-Ouattara run-off result,

Laurent Fabius on 13 Dec, Martine Aubry on 6 Dec., both on France Inter, L'invité à 8h20

L'interview de Jean-Pierre Elkabbach, 03/12/2010 - 08:20 - "Ouattara n’est pas le président élu" ... ambassadeur de Côte d’Ivoire, rappelle que le processus électoral n’est pas terminé.

(3) On the radio: the website's "Listen again", 3:00 - ... , was different. This seems to be a better link to use.

(4) 08:20 CET, "Pas question d'aller vers une partition", Guillaume Soro, Premier ministre nommé par Alassane Ouattara, qualifie Laurent Gbagbo de "mauvais perdant".

Updated: 16 Dec

1 Comments:

Anonymous agen sbobet said...

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1:48 am, March 28, 2013  

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