ABIDJAN, Dec 4 (AFP) - Ivory Coast's bloody election standoff escalated today with world powers urging long-term President Laurent Gbagbo to make way for his old rival Alassane Ouattara.
With both candidates claiming victory and the United Nations, United States and European Union all throwing their weight behind Ouattara, Ivorians waited anxiously for the next move by Gbagbo, clinging on after a decade in power.
State television said early today that a ceremony was planned to confirm Gbagbo in office at midday and broadcast pictures of him meeting military leaders who it said pledged allegiance to him.
The Constitutional Council, the country's highest court run by the president's allies, had declared Gbagbo the winner, tightening the deadlock as fears mounted of more deadly unrest.
But Ouattara defied Gbagbo, declaring himself president-elect as the international community began to fall in behind him on Friday. “I am the elected president of the Republic of Ivory Coast,” Ouattara told reporters.
“The Constitutional Council has abused its authority, the whole world knows it, and I am sorry for my country's image.”Both sides had traded allegations of cheating in the vote and Gbagbo's camp tried to have results annulled in Ouattara's northern stronghold, but the United Nations judged the polls sound overall.
|
E-mail
