Ivorian opposition calls for polls to halt decline
Source: Reuters
By Loucoumane Coulibaly ABIDJAN, Dec 29 (Reuters) - Ivory Coast needs elections next year to end a conflict which is ruining the once-prosperous nation's economy, leaving many Ivorians to face hunger or emigrate in search of work, an opposition leader said on Friday. Alassane Ouattara urged President Laurent Gbagbo to press ahead with U.N.-mandated polls to unite the former French colony after the New Forces rebels seized its north in a brief 2002-03 civil war. "The degradation of our country on an economic level is an undeniable reality. All the indicators are in the red," Ouattara said in an end-of-year message published in the press. "Who would have imagined a few years ago that many Ivorians could not afford two meals a day and would not have the means to look after themselves? "Amid uncertainty or conquered by despair, many people are emigrating for other countries," he said. The world's largest cocoa producer, Ivory Coast is divided by a buffer zone between the rebel north and the government-controlled south, policed by thousands of U.N. and French troops. Efforts at disarming the factions and organising polls have foundered amid political squabbling, causing francophone West Africa's economic powerhouse to stagnate. Gbagbo's five-year mandate expired in October 2005, but he has been kept in place under U.N. peace plans. The latest resolution in November tasked Prime Minister Charles Konan Banny with pushing through disarmament and polls by October 2007. "How to put an end to this disaster? There is only one response: to organise elections whose results are unquestionable," Ouattara said. "There is no alternative to the U.N. Security Council resolution." In an apparent snub to U.N. peace efforts, Gbagbo unveiled his own peace plan in mid-December, which called for the scrapping of the U.N-manned buffer zone. He pledged to push ahead with elections this year but failed to address rebel concerns over voter identification ahead of the polls. Before they disarm, the rebels insist identity papers must be distributed to an estimated 3.5 million people born in Ivory Coast but never issued documents. The New Forces dispute the format of an ID scheme due to resume in the coming weeks. Some analysts in Ivory Coast say both the rebels and the government are amassing too much money through illicit exploitation of natural resources to wish to end the stalemate.
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