Well does anyone smell rat?I don't want to jump the gun,but i think the opposition have won the election,and Guei is out to rig the results.Let us wait and see what the outcome would be. Monday, 23 October, 2000, 19:17 GMT Soldiers deployed at Ivory Coast count Soldiers have been deployed at Ivory Coast's electoral commission premises, where votes were being counted after Sunday's presidential elections. Journalists were also ordered out of the building, and the president of the commission, Honore Guie, appeared on state television at 5.10 pm (1710 GMT) to announce a break in publication of the election results. He said they would be resumed two hours later, and rejected claims that he had been arrested and kept under house arrest. Initial results released early on Monday put opposition candidate, professor Laurent Gbagb,o ahead of military ruler general Robert Guei. But both sides have been claiming victory in the poll, which had a turnout of less than 35%. Results In his television address, the commission president denied allegations of his arrest saying: "That isn't the case. I'm here and the results will resume around 7pm (1900GMT)." He attributed the break in the publication of the results to a problem with receiving them from the provinces. "The results were no longer coming in from the interior of the country," he said, adding that the commission had then decided to give its staff and others a break. According to the French news agency, AFP, an electoral commission source reached by telephone did not want to say what was going on inside the premises, but then broke into sobs, saying: "Stop, they will beat us." Shortly before the commission president appeared on television, some 30 soldiers prevented several acccredited journalists from entering the commission, which had previously been guarded by police. Reuters news agency reported that soldiers had blocked off roads leading to the commission in the business district of Plateau in the main city, Abidjan. As Mr Gbagbo's camp confidently predicted victory, General Guei's insisted their candidate was winning. Most opposition politicians, notably former prime minister Alassane Ouattara - head of the Rally of Republicans (RDR) - were prevented from taking part in the poll by a Supreme Court ruling on 6 October. Casting his vote amid tight security in central Abidjan earlier, General Guei described Ivory Coast as "a land of peace". "All will happen calmly, the winner will win," said the general. He promised to respect the results of the vote, and stand down if he was defeated. General Guei's 10-month rule has been characterised by political instability and rapid economic decline _________________________________________________________________________ Get Your Private, Free E-mail from MSN Hotmail at http://www.hotmail.com. Share information about yourself, create your own public profile at http://profiles.msn.com. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe/subscribe or view archives of postings, go to the Gambia-L Web interface at: http://maelstrom.stjohns.edu/archives/gambia-l.html You may also send subscription requests to [log in to unmask] if you have problems accessing the web interface and remember to write your full name and e-mail address. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------