The Electoral Commission will on Monday announce the preliminary official results of the presidential election on October 31. After several violent incidents and the political statements from the government and the opposition, fears of seeing the situation become more and more tense. Several observation missions are already delivering their conclusions on the vote on Saturday.
With our special correspondent in Abidjan, Laurent Correau
In Côte d’Ivoire, election observation missions, one after another, publish their reports on the presidential election on Saturday. The election mission from EISA and the Carter Center released their early Monday afternoon. The title speaks of a “non-inclusive vote and the boycott which leaves a broken country ”.
The Carter Center believes in its report that the political context did not allow for a “competitive and credible” choice. All the problems identified, whether it is the call for a boycott of the opposition, acts of violenceor the non-participation of several candidates “threatens the public’s acceptance of the results and the cohesion of the country”.
The report talks about a “large number of incidents” on polling day and an “unstable security environment”. In six of the 17 regions observed, this situation strongly affected voting operations. The turnout, according to EISA and the Carter Center, is mixed and shows strong differences across the country: a high rate in the north, low in the center and west and very variable in the south of the country.
The validation of the candidacy of the Alassane Ouattara in question
The Carter Center and EISA also return to the issue of validating Alassane Ouattara’s candidacy for a third term. A validation disputed “rightly”. And the report adds: “The reasons for this decision are not based on a clear legal basis or justified in matters of law.” “This worrying orientation, according to the two organizations, repeats a trend observed on the African continent changing or amending the Constitution to allow current presidents to run for a third term. ”
This Sunday, another organization made a report, also very critical. The Indigo organization, sponsored by the American organization The National Democratic Institute, estimates that 23% of the polling stations could not open this Saturday. The organization also had 391 incidents on polling day. Conclusion for Indigo, “these incidents did not allow a massive and calm voice expression for a large part of the Ivorian population”.
Answer by Mamadou Touré, spokesman for the government: “This record does not correspond to reality”.
You need to look more at this report because Indigo was working on a sample of 700 out of 22,000 polling stations.
Mamadou Touré, spokesman for the Ivorian Government
■ Activities resume in Abidjan, the economic capital
Two days after the election, Abidjan’s people are gradually reinvesting public space, but it is not yet the usual rush. The streets are filled with fear, many companies have kept the curtain down. Even street vendors are rare.
[Reportage] Life is shyly resumed in Abidjan two days after the vote
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