I Coast: Elections 'impossible'
2005-09-28 09:48
Abidjan - Ivory Coast President Laurent Gbagbo said that the planned October presidential elections will not be held because rebels who control the northern half of the West African nation have failed to disarm.
Gbagbo also said on Tuesday the constitution allows him to remain in power after October 30 - a claim rebels dispute - when the vote was to have been held and his mandate would have expired.
Most Ivorians have long doubted an election would be held with the nation split in two. Many feared fresh violence either way.
In April, warring parties signed a South African-brokered peace deal and renewed past pledges to disarm. No faction has laid down weapons, however, and both sides blame each other for failing to begin the process and take other crucial steps to prepare for the ballot.
"The elections obviously cannot be held October 30 2005, because rebels will not have disarmed by this date," Gbagbo said in an address broadcast on state television.
'Bad faith'
Amadou Kone, a top aide to rebel leader Guillaume Soro, said Gbagbo's declaration was "not a surprise." He said the president's comments reflected "his bad faith in the search for a solution to the Ivorian crisis."
Article 38 of the Ivorian constitution stipulates that the incumbent head of state may stay in power "in case of grave events or circumstances, notably attacks against the territorial integrity or national disasters that render the normal course of elections impossible."
Gbagbo supporters say the article indicates the president can remain in power if elections are not held for any reason. Opponents say the article refers only to delaying elections that are already in progress, and doesn't specifically say what should happen if elections have yet to begin.
Either way, the document does not say how long the president can stay in power if elections don't take place.
"I acquired power by elections and I will relinquish it only to one person elected in conformity with the constitution," Gbagbo said. "The constitution provides that the President of the Republic address a message to the nation to explain what circumstances that prevent the elections from being held and he stays in power until elections are held."
Tensions have been rising in the world's top cocoa producer in recent weeks, with rebels and the main opposition parties having already refused to participate in the presidential ballot, which many once hoped would help reunify the country.
Once an oasis of stability in war-ravaged West Africa, Ivory Coast began its spiralling descent with a 1999 coup, its first. Rebels launched a failed coup bid in 2002 which left the nation split between a rebel-held north and a loyalist south.
Major fighting ended with an initial peace deal signed in France in 2003. But the country has remained tense and divided despite additional peace talks that have dragged on in Togo, Ghana and South Africa.
- AP