- Title: IVORY COAST: Mediators name economist Charles Konan Banny as Ivory Coast PM
- Date: 6th December 2005
- Summary: PRESIDENTS ENTERING NEWS BRIEFING ROOM OBASANJO AND MBEKI IN NEWS BRIEFING ROOM OBASANJO AND GBAGBO IN NEWS BRIEFING ROOM NIGERIAN FOREIGN MINISTER OLUYEMI ADENIJI IN NEWS BRIEFING ROOM
- Embargoed: 21st December 2005 12:00
- Keywords:
- Topics: Domestic Politics
- Reuters ID: LVABJENFQIVO594AE7HQBKRC7BUR
- Story Text: African mediators named Charles Konan Banny, the governor of West Africa's central bank, as Ivory Coast's interim prime minister on Sunday (December 4), a step meant to break a deadlock in the country's faltering peace process.
The world's top cocoa grower has been split in two since rebels seized its north after failing in a bid to oust President Laurent Gbagbo three years ago. A series of U.N.-backed peace deals have so far failed to reunite the West African country.
''After wide consultations with all Ivorian counterparts, we decided here the following: the prime minister for the transition time which will end in 2006 is Mr Charles Konan Banny,'' Nigerian Foreign Minister Oluyemi Adenidji told journalists .
Banny will have an expanded mandate under a U.N.-backed deal giving him powers to carry out disarmament and electoral reforms with the aim of organising presidential elections by the end of October next year.
Ivory Coast's warring factions were supposed to agree on the new prime minister as part of an African Union peace plan endorsed by the U.N. Security Council.
But Gbagbo's government, opposition parties and the rebels had been haggling for weeks over who should get the job.
The rebels were not immediately available to comment on the mediators' choice of Banny, but the opposition welcomed his nomination.
The choice of the new interim president was welcomed on the streets of the capital of the Ivory Coast on Monday (December 5). "I say Banny is the one we needed because he is strong, he's good on the intellectual level and he's clear minded," said Laurent Martial Guei, a musician in Abidjan. ''Banny is a man of integrity, a man that, I think, can unify all parties and who will do the job he was chosen for. He's a straightforward person. I think it's a good choice,'' said Boniface Metchro Mel, whose profesion is engineer.
Ivory Coast's warring factions were supposed to agree on a new prime minister to guide the country towards presidential elections by next October as part of an African Union peace plan endorsed by the U.N. Security Council.
The world's top cocoa grower has been split in two since rebels seized its north after failing in a bid to oust President Laurent Gbagbo three years ago. A series of U.N.-backed peace agreements have so far failed to reunite the West African country.
Obasanjo, who chairs the African Union, and Mbeki met with Gbagbo on Sunday after weeks of haggling over the prime minister's post between the government, opposition and rebels.
Banny, a political outsider, had been tipped as a leading candidate for the post. He is governor of the Central Bank of West African States (BCEAO), whose common currency, the CFA franc, is used by eight countries in the region.
Analysts and diplomats like the Senegal-based banker's distance from local politics and his economic know-how.
The prime minister in the former French colony is usually overshadowed by the more powerful president, who heads the executive. But Banny will have broader powers under a U.N. resolution adopted in October.
The resolution allows Gbagbo to remain in power for a further year after his mandate ended on October 30, when polls set for that date were postponed. - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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