A robber is a robber is a robber. Who is surprised by cote'ivoire
post ivory war!
May the innocent be spared.
              Karl

>From: USA Halal Chamber of Commerce <[log in to unmask]>
>Reply-To: The Gambia and related-issues mailing list
><[log in to unmask]>
>To: [log in to unmask]
>Subject: Cote' ivoire
>Date: Tue, 24 Oct 2000 12:06:30 -0700
>
>fyi
>
>FROM THE ASSOCIATED PRESS INTERNATIONAL
>
>
>    OCTOBER 24, 11:21 EDT
>
>  Junta Leader Says He Won Election
>
>  By ALEXANDRA ZAVIS
>  Associated Press Writer
>
>  ABIDJAN, Ivory Coast (AP) — Junta leader Gen. Robert Guei dissolved the
>commission
>  overseeing Ivory Coast's presidential elections and declared himself
>the winner, a senior
>  Interior Ministry official said Tuesday.
>
>  Daniel Bamba Sheik, director-general of the Interior Ministry's
>territorial administration
>  department, said Guei took 52.72 percent of Sunday's vote compared with
>41.02 for
>  opposition leader Laurent Gbagbo.
>
>  Gbagbo's party had earlier claimed the opposition leader had won, and
>his aides said party
>  supporters planned to march in protest later Tuesday through Abidjan,
>the commercial
>  capital.
>
>  Sunday's vote was to decide the future of this West African country,
>which saw its
>  reputation as a bastion of regional calm destroyed in the December coup
>d'etat that brought
>  Guei to power.
>
>  Bamba Sheik blamed massive fraud and the incompetence of electoral
>officials for the decision
>  to disband the commission overseeing the vote.
>
>  He accused several parties, including Gbagbo's Ivorian Popular Front,
>of busing voters from
>  Abidjan to villages in the interior in order to vote twice.
>
>  Bamba Sheik claimed only 3.6 million voters had been registered for the
>vote, down from the
>  5.5 million announced by the commission before the ballot. Some 153,000
>votes were nullified,
>  he added.
>
>  Electoral commission officials were not immediately available for
>comment and those seen
>  earlier in the day were escorted by armed security personnel and not
>allowed to talk to
>  journalists.
>
>  Following Tuesday's announcement, the streets of downtown Abidjan were
>virtually empty
>  except for security personnel wearing riot gear.
>
>  The vote was controversial from the beginning. The nation's two largest
>political parties
>  boycotted the ballot after their leaders were barred from running by
>the Supreme Court.
>  Gbagbo was the only political heavyweight allowed to run against the
>junta leader.
>
>  Preliminary results released around midday Monday — reflecting just a
>fraction of the vote —
>  showed Gbagbo with an edge over Guei. Since then, however, vote
>counting appeared to
>  have stopped, European Union officials said, speaking on condition of
>anonymity.
>
>  Before counting was interrupted, Gbagbo had 51.35 percent of the
>126,683 ballots counted,
>  compared to 40.40 percent for Guei, national electoral commission
>president Honore Guie said
>  Monday.
>
>  Gbagbo's party claimed its own count showed it leading with 61 percent
>to 25 percent for
>  Guei with 1.1 million votes counted.
>
>  A representative of Gbagbo's party had earlier asked Guei to accept
>defeat.
>
>  ``In developed countries, the loser recognizes his defeat ... even when
>the official results
>  are not completely available,'' said Gbagbo's campaign manager, Afi
>Nguessan.
>
>  In an interview broadcast on Europe 1 radio, Gbagbo urged Guei to
>``hand over power'' and
>  said army soldiers were also advising the military ruler to do so.
>
>  However, some soldiers said Guei had given unspecified orders to troops
>late Monday to
>  ``calm the population.''
>
>  On Monday, soldiers deployed throughout Abidjan after groups of
>jubilant Gbagbo (pronounced
>  BAHG-bo) supporters paraded through the streets in parts of Abidjan and
>other cities.
>  Soldiers used tear gas to break up a rally of Gbagbo demonstrators.
>
>  A senior junta member, Communications Minister Henri Cesar Sama, warned
>Gbagbo's
>  supporters to cease their celebrations, calling the jubilation
>``premature.''
>
>  The United Nations, the Organization of African Unity, the European
>Union and countries such
>  as the United States and Canada withdrew election observers or funding,
>saying the exclusion
>  of major opponents made a free and fair election impossible.
>
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