NIGERIA: West African regional bloc ECOWAS recognise Alassane Ouattara as president-elect of Ivory Coast

Record ID: 235280

  • Title: NIGERIA: West African regional bloc ECOWAS recognise Alassane Ouattara as president-elect of Ivory Coast
  • Date: 8th December 2010
  • Summary: ABUJA, NIGERIA (DECEMBER 7, 2010) (REUTERS) VARIOUS OF PRESIDENT OF GHANA JOHN ATTA MILLS , PRESIDENT OF NIGERIA GOODLUCK JONATHAN AND OTHER OFFICIALS ARRIVING MEDIA FILMING VARIOUS OF DELEGATES ARRIVING PRESIDENT OF NIGERIA GOODLUCK JONATHAN ARRIVING FOR NEWS CONFERENCE (SOUNDBITE) (English) PRESIDENT OF NIGERIA GOODLUCK JONATHAN, SAYING: "We believe that the result declared by the electoral commission and accepted by the U.N. special representative there is the authentic one and Ouattara is the person we will support as the president of Côte d'Ivoire." VARIOUS OF ECOWAS MEMERS MEETING (SOUNDBITE) (English) PRESIDENT OF NIGERIA GOODLUCK JONATHAN, SAYING: "It is immediate, elections have been declared. Somebody has won, so he has to hand over." VARIOUS OF ECOWAS MEMERS MEETING
  • Embargoed: 23rd December 2010 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Nigeria, Nigeria
  • Country: Nigeria
  • Topics: International Relations
  • Reuters ID: LVA7IZIPNNY1FGZXN2PXC1Z441OY
  • Story Text: West African regional bloc ECOWAS recognised Alassane Ouattara as president-elect of Ivory Coast on Tuesday (December 7) and called on his rival Laurent Gbagbo to cede power immediately.
    The 15-nation body also said it had agreed to suspend Ivory Coast, after an emergency summit attended by regional heads of state in the Nigerian capital Abuja.
    "We believe that the result declared by the electoral commission and accepted by the U.N. special representative there is the authentic one and Ouattara is the person we will support as the president of Côte d'Ivoire," Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan said at a meeting of ECOWAS members in Abuja.
    "It is immediate, elections have been declared. Somebody has won, so he has to hand over," Jonathan said, referring to rival Laurent Gbagbo.
    Disagreement over the outcome of last month's poll in the world's top cocoa grower has raised the risk of renewed violence in a nation still divided in two by a 2002-3 war, and heightened fears that unrest might spread to a fragile region.
    Incumbent Gbagbo was sworn in as president last week even though Ivory Coast's electoral commission had declared Ouattara the clear winner of the Nov. 28 election.
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