ICoast-vote,sched-lead
   All sides claim victory in Ivory Coast by-elections
   ATTENTION - RECASTS, ADDS comment from PDCI ///
   by Serge Arnold

   ABIDJAN, Jan 15 (AFP) - The former ruling Ivory Coast Democratic Party
(PDCI) won a swathe of seats in northern by-elections at the weekend, but
only
after almost nine in every ten voters boycotted the polls.
   The boycott was launched by the main opposition Rally of Rebublicans
(RDR)
party, whose leader Alassane Ouattara has been routed from the political
process by successive regimes.
   The sidelining of Ouattara, a Muslim from the north, by a political
establishment long dominated by Christians from the south, has ripped apart
the once stable, relatively prosperous nation.
   The PDCI, which dominated politics in Ivory Coast until the country's
first
coup in December 1999, took 15 seats out of 24, final official results
revealed on Monday, a day after the election.
   President Laurent Gbagbo's Ivorian Popular Front (FPI) won no seats, but
remains the largest party in the parliament mostly elected in December.
   The vote came a week after a failed coup bid which authorities blamed on
"northerners" and "foreigners" from neighboring west African nations.
   Four RDR candidates won seats in spite of a boycott call by their party
in
its own stronghold, to protest the exclusion of Ouattara, a former deputy
director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) who was prime minister of
Ivory Coast in the early 1990s.
   Authorities contend that Ouattara is not Ivorian and therefore
uneligible
to run for president or a seat in parliament.
   RDR spokesman Ali Keita hailed the boycott a "total success", welcoming
the
official turnout given by the national electoral commission -- only 13.27
percent -- as showing that "the RDR has proved it is the first party in
Ivory
Coast."
   Independent candidates won the five remaining seats Sunday in the 22
constituencies where voting took place, according to final figures issued
by
the commission. Two of the constituencies are represented by two MPs.
   No voting took place in Ouattara's home town, Kong, where officials once
again postponed the by-election. Voting officials chased out in December
had
failed to return to the constituency, which should also have two MPs.
   The government called the polls to fill parliamentary seats left vacant
because of disturbances in the affected constituencies during a general
election held in December.
   Since presidential elections which Gbagbo won in October, more than 200
people have been killed in political violence, much of it linked to fall-
out
over Ouattara's exclusion from the political process.
   There have also been moutning attacks on people seen as northerners and
foreigners, on a regular basis.
   RDR candidates appeared on all the ballot papers Sunday, as their
boycott
was not organised until after candidate registration took place.
   Despite the boycott, authorities could attribute winners in the
by-elections as no minimum turnout was required.
   The overall result of Sunday's poll was to give the formerly sole ruling
PDCI 94 seats out of 225 in parliament, with 96 for the FPI.
   However, PDCI Secretary-General Atsin Achy on Monday claimed that his
own
party was "the leading political force" in the country.
   The party's group in the national assembly would in fact have 101
members,
Achy told AFP, since "seven independents we financed and sponsored have
confirmed their formal return to the PDCI".
   The Democratic Party had run Ivory Coast from independence in 1960 until
a
military coup in December 1999 brought General Robert Guei to power amid
political turmoil and and economic crisis.
   Guei agreed to stage presidential polls in October, but barred Ouattara
and
key PDCI candidates from standing, leaving only Gbagbo and the retired
general
to face off.
   Gbagbo took office after a mass uprising was unleashed when Guei tried
to
rig the vote.
   The election of a parliamentary speaker now depends on alliances in
Abidjan, where independents will have a decisive role.
   Twenty-two independents --of whom 13 plan to form a new party -- have
been
elected. So have five RDR candidates, four from the Ivorian Workers' Party
(PIT, an ally of the FPI), and one candidate each for the Movement of
Forces
for the Future and the Ivory Coast Union of Democrats.
   sa-il/nb/jlr

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