IVORY COAST: ORGANISERS OF IVORY COAST PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION DELAY RESULTS RAISING FEARS THAT RULING JUNTA MAY BE TRYING TO CHEAT GBAGBO OF VICTORY

Record ID: 183571

  • Title: IVORY COAST: ORGANISERS OF IVORY COAST PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION DELAY RESULTS RAISING FEARS THAT RULING JUNTA MAY BE TRYING TO CHEAT GBAGBO OF VICTORY
  • Date: 23rd October 2000
  • Summary: ABIDJAN, IVORY COAST (OCTOBER 23, 2000) (REUTERS - ACCESS ALL) 1. SCU SIGN OUTSIDE THE NATIONAL ELECTION COMMISSION 0.03 2. SLV EXTERIOR OF THE NATIONAL ELECTORAL COMMISSION (CNE) WITH SOLDIERS STANDING GUARD 0.08 3. SLV SOLDIERS AND GENDARMES STANDING GUARD OUTSIDE THE CNE 0.10 4. SMV HONORE GUIE, PRESIDENT OF NATIONAL ELECTORAL COMMISSION, SEATED 0.13 5. SCU SOUNDBITE (French) GUIE ANNOUNCING OFFICIAL RESULTS FROM ONE POLLING STATION: "The candidate Laurent Gbagbo, 656 votes, the candidate Laurent Gbagbo, 1,072 votes," 0.32 6. WIDE OF VOTE COUNTING AT A POLLING STATION 0.38 7. CLOSE UP BALLLOT PAPER BEING UNFOLDED AND SHOWN TO OBSERVORS /CAMERA - PAPER SHOWING A VOTE FOR OPPOSITION LEADER LAURENT GBAGBO (2 SHOTS) 0.45 8. WIDE OF VOTES BEING COUNTED ON BOARD 0.48 9. SLV VOTING OFFICIALS CARRYING A BALLOT BOX FULL OF VOTES 0.50 10. VARIOUS, GENDARMES GUARD VOTING BOXES (2 SHOTS) 0.57 11. SLV GBAGBO SUPPORTERS GIVE A TWO-FINGERED VICTORY SALUTE AS THEY RIDE IN THE BACK OF A POLICE TRUCK (2 SHOTS) 1.06 12. SCU SOUNDBITE (French) LAURENT GBAGBO, MAIN CHALLENGER OF MILITARY LEADER GENERAL ROBERT GUEI IN THE ELECTION: "Given all the results that we have had up to now, they are going in the same direction, which is to say, towards a victory for us." 1.17 13. WIDE , GBAGBO SUPPORTERS SINGING AND DANCING AT HIS CAMPAIGN HEADQUARTERS WHERE THE RESULTS ARE COMPILED 1.26 14. WIDE OF NEWS CONFERENCE AT THE CAMPAIGN HEADQUARTERS OF GUEI 1.32 15. SCU SOUNDBITE (French) CAPTAIN HENRI CEASAR SAMA, MINISTER OF COMMUNICATIONS: "I would like to assure our supporters who don't believe (that we'll win) that we could also send them out in the streets to celebrate (as opponent Laurent Gbabgo's supporters are doing). We are confident." 1.44 16. VARIOUS, SUPPORTERS OF OPPOSITION LEADER LAURENT GBAGBO DANCE AND SING OUTSIDE HIS CAMPAIGN HEADQUARTERS (3 SHOTS) 1.57 17. VARIOUS, SUPPORTERS OF IVORY COAST OPPOSITION LEADER LAURENT GBAGBO MARCH THROUGH A SUBURB IN THE MAIN CITY ABIDJAN TO PROTEST DELAYS IN THE RELEASE OF PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION RESULTS (3 SHOTS) 2.11 18. WIDE OF GBAGBO SUPPORTERS IN A DIFFERENT ABIDJAN SUBURB CONFRONT RIOT POLICE 2.16 19. VARIOUS, TEAR GASE CANISTER FIRED BY RIOT POLICE /FLEEING PROTESTORS (3 SHOTS) 2.24 20. SCU SOUNDBITE (FRENCH) MATHIAS BLE, PROTESTOR, SAYING: "We don't know where this thing is heading and that's why we came out on the streets." 2.33 21. VARIOUS, SOLDIERS GUARD THE NATIONAL ELECTORAL COMMISSION ON MONDAY AFTER THE COMMISSION ANNOUNCED IT WOULD GIVE OUT NO FURTHER RESULTS UNTIL TUESDAY. (2 SHOTS) 2.42 Initials Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved
  • Embargoed: 7th November 2000 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: ABIDJAN, IVORY COAST
  • Country: Ivory Coast
  • Reuters ID: LVACL8RAX9UO3G38DRGC57S5ADFU
  • Story Text: The organisers of Ivory Coast's presidential poll have
    delayed the release of results until Tuesday, raising fears
    among supporters of Socialist Laurent Gbagbo that the ruling
    junta may be trying to cheat him of victory.



    A spokesman for the National Electoral Commission (CNE)
    told Reuters late on Monday that it would resume announcing
    results after a 12 hour pause at 11 a.m. (1100 GMT). He did
    not say whether the Commission would give final or partial
    results.

    Officials at the campaign headquarters of Gbagbo, who was
    leading when the flow of results dried up on Monday morning,
    said they had computed their own results and were confident
    their leader had defeated army ruler General Robert Guei.

    "We have the results. We are calm," said Affi N'Guessan,
    Gbagbo's campaign director.

    He warned the party would not stand idly by in case of
    irregularities, but did not denounce any fraud.

    "They can't steal our victory, we would react if they
    tried to. We are a party built on struggle," he said.

    Earlier, paramilitary gendarmes used teargas to disperse
    several hundred Gbagbo supporters in Abidjan's colourful
    Treichville district as they headed for the CNE to demand the
    immediate release of the remaining results.

    Witnesses reported armed members of the security forces
    circulating in different districts of the main city Abidjan.

    Preliminary official results announced on Monday put
    Gbagbo ahead with 51.35 percent of votes cast in Sunday's
    election. They gave Guei 40.4 percent of votes cast.

    The results came from constituencies accounting for less
    than eight percent of the electorate but the trend, if
    continued, would be enough to secure outright victory in the
    first round.

    Diplomats and others wondered whether the army, who took
    power with a coup last December, would be ready to hand over
    to a civilian president in case of defeat.

    Former Prime Minister Alassane Ouattara, who was
    disqualified from the election, said he believed Guei had no
    plans to leave power.

    "General Guei has been very determined from the start.

    Wait and see what he will do," he said in a telephone
    interview from his Abidjan home to France Info radio.

    Gbagbo, 55, and Guei, 59, were the only serious contenders
    in a field of five after the supreme court barred most
    candidates from running.

    Gbagbo, who led the fight for multi-party politics in the
    1980s, claimed victory almost immediately after the close of
    polls. But junta spokesman Henri Cesar Sama, who campaigned on
    behalf of Guei, said on Monday such claims were premature.

    Guei called Sunday's poll and a December 10 parliamentary
    election to return the world's top cocoa producer to civilian
    rule after the coup, the first in Ivory Coast's history.


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