if anyone rule a country for 10 years, I dont think people would want him back in power too. so gbagbo may not have won too. I think gbagbo should be a stateman, and step aside, or even conduct a fresh election to please the west or they go for a recount.


No, that is not , his career at the IMF is not what makes it look the way it is. The United nation officer in ivory coast is depending on Yousssof Bakayoko the ivory coast NEC chairman, who need to be question.

Jenifa_:


My guess is that his long career in IMF has helped him garner this support. Also, these international bodies do not support Gbagbo's presidency so opposition was probably welcome as a result.

but seriously though, why would you tear up the result of an election in front of cameras and prevent the result from being aired and not expect opposition from the international community?

To me, the best solution is to conduct the elections over again. no rigging. but is that possible?

All politics are local. When other countries and international bodies delve into local issues such Ivorian election, the result has always been chaos or civil war. It must recall that first position held in IMF does necessarily qualify Alassane Ouattara as a presidential candidate in Ivory Coast. It has been brazenly stated that Alassane Ouattara is an Ivorian interloper and this has been collaborated when he accepted to become Deputy Governor of BCEAO, a position which was reserved for Burkina Faso. Alassane Ouattara is a Burkinabe whom France, USA, European Union and UN are trying very hard to foist on the people of Ivory Coast as president.

Dede1:

All politics are local. When other countries and international bodies delve into local issues such Ivorian election, the result has always been chaos or civil war. It must recall that first position held in IMF does necessarily qualify Alassane Ouattara as a presidential candidate in Ivory Coast. It has been brazenly stated that Alassane Ouattara is an Ivorian interloper and this has been collaborated when he accepted to become Deputy Governor of BCEAO, a position which was reserved for Burkina Faso. Alassane Ouattara is a Burkinabe whom France, USA, European Union and UN are trying very hard to foist on the people of Ivory Coast as president.

wow. do you work for Gbagbo or something?
or did you not read the part where Ouattara served as prime minister and finance minister of cote d'ivoire at the same time for years?
he was also born in Cote d'ivoire.

51% (or more) of the cote d'ivoirian population voted for him for a reason.
let the people decide who their president is. not some professor or dictator.

Dede1:

All politics are local. When other countries and international bodies delve into local issues such Ivorian election, the result has always been chaos or civil war. It must recall that first position held in IMF does necessarily qualify Alassane Ouattara as a presidential candidate in Ivory Coast. It has been brazenly stated that Alassane Ouattara is an Ivorian interloper and this has been collaborated when he accepted to become Deputy Governor of BCEAO, a position which was reserved for Burkina Faso. Alassane Ouattara is a Burkinabe whom France, USA, European Union and UN are trying very hard to foist on the people of Ivory Coast as president.

Africans need to stop cooking up stories all in a bid to justify stupidity. The constitutional council never disqualified Ouattara as a candidate – it had the power to, if it chose but it didn’t. Ouattara fairly contested and was neither disqualified from moving on to the second round. At no point did the constitutional council consider disqualifying Ouattara , so I suggest you ask yourself if you are even in touch with reality in this at all.

Kobojunkie:

Africans need to stop cooking up stories all in a bid to justify stupidity. The constitutional council never disqualified Ouattara as a candidate – it had the power to, if it chose but it didn’t. Ouattara fairly contested and was neither disqualified from moving on to the second round. At no point did the constitutional council consider disqualifying Ouattara , so I suggest you ask yourself if you are even in touch with reality in this at all.

No, I do not work for Gbagbo but sick and tired of colonial involvement in African affairs.

Are you referring to the same constitutional council that should have allowed the people of Ivory Coast to decide their president?  In all these electioneering quagmires in Ivory Coast, I deduced that the genuine result was released by the constitutional council as oppose to the fake announced by foreign led Ivorian Electoral Commission.

Dede1:


No, I do not work for Gbagbo but sick and tired of colonial involvement in African affairs.

Are you referring to the same constitutional council that should have allowed the people of Ivory Coast to decide their president?  In all these electioneering quagmires in Ivory Coast, I deduced that the genuine result was released by the constitutional council as oppose to the fake announced by foreign led Ivorian Electoral Commission.

Dude.
Please decide if you're here to understand what really is going on in Ivory Coast, or if your sole motivation is to twist and bend all information you receive to fit your conviction that 'colonial involvement' is the root cause of the crisis in Ivory Coast.
From what has been said before, Gbagbo saw no issues with the electoral process during the first round when he scored the highest number of votes. Same electoral body, same umpire, same UN observers. Now that he's on the losing side, the man wants to sit tight.
This same scoundrel Gbagbo has denied Ivorians true democracy by constantly postponing the dates for elections for 5 years! Abeg, the sooner he is flushed out, the better for everyone. Africa has long been held back by these sit-tight dictators.

Dede1:


No, I do not work for Gbagbo but sick and tired of colonial involvement in African affairs.

Are you referring to the same constitutional council that should have allowed the people of Ivory Coast to decide their president?  In all these electioneering quagmires in Ivory Coast, I deduced that the genuine result was released by the constitutional council as oppose to the fake announced by foreign led Ivorian Electoral Commission.

i'm sick and tired of colonial involvement too but I won't support a dictator just because the west oppose him. let's call a spade a spade.

the constitutional council is basically being run by gbagbo's friend. it is a one man council and the author of the article does not hesitate to tell us that. what is genuine about it.
the real result of the election was torn in half by gbagbo's men and prevented from being aired to the ivorian public which is why they had to announce it privately to western press.

Dede1:


No, I do not work for Gbagbo but sick and tired of colonial involvement in African affairs.

Are you referring to the same constitutional council that should have allowed the people of Ivory Coast to decide their president?  In all these electioneering quagmires in Ivory Coast, I deduced that the genuine result was released by the constitutional council as oppose to the fake announced by foreign led Ivorian Electoral Commission.

It is one thing to be sick and tired of what you call "colonial involvement" and another to allow your rights be shot down each and every time so you can pretend to score one against the "colonials". The Constitutional council in this case WENT AGAINST the country's own constitution, to install Gbagbo as president for yet another term -- it did not follow protocol and essentially overruled the people's mandate to install their candidate of choice.

If you are going to make any deductions, at least apply common sense of the law here. The law is clear on what ought to take place in the case of a dispute or irregularities. The council ignored protocol and put itself above the people by its actions. There is still no detail provided to date, as to the how and the why the council selected to nullify about a million votes from northern(mostly outarra supporting regions) regions as it claimed it had to. I don't believe the constitution hands such power over to the council to I would have hoped you would be a lot more concerned as to why the vote of millions of ivorians are being cast out and away so Gbagbo can keep his position as President   Just imagine this sort of thing happening in Nigeria  -- NASS nullifying votes from Ibo supporting regions of the country -- and tell me if you would be more furious at "COLONIALS" if that ever happened.

@tex, Jen and Kobo

I am not an expert on the Ivory Coast's electoral process. However, we must be very careful not to throw away bad water with the baby. It is my understanding that When the first round's election result was announced, it was neither in hotel headquarter of Gbagbo nor that of Quattera. Is not brazenly against the run of political sanity that the second electoral result was announced in Hotal du Golf, the alleged campaign headquarter of Ouattara before the so-called international press or observers instead of Ivorian national media source?

I shall be all ears if anybody could categorically inform me that the Ivorian Constitutional Council is not a part of Ivorian electoral machination. The people are not necessarily the final arbiter in electoral process period.

Dede1:

I shall be all ears if anybody could categorically inform me that the Ivorian Constitutional Council is not a part of Ivorian electoral machination. The people are not necessarily the final arbiter in electoral process period.

It is not . . . well, not according to the Ivorian Constitution. The Electoral commission is a body INDEPENDENT of the constitutional council. Granted the IEC announcing the results from Ouattara's campaign headquarters is cause for concern, the actions of the constitutional council however was most definitely UNCONSTITUTIONAL.

Kobojunkie:

It is not . . . well, not according to the Ivorian Constitution. The Electoral commission is a body INDEPENDENT of the constitutional council. Granted the IEC announcing the results from Ouattara's campaign headquarters is cause for concern, the actions of the constitutional council however was most definitely UNCONSTITUTIONAL.

Kobo, I appreciate your indulgence in disabusing your mind about the illogical analogy being thrown recklessly around when people ask why Gbagbo accepted the results of the first round of the election but the second. There is no doubt in my mind the second election result announced in the political headquarter of Ouattara was an international con job.

Since Ivorian Constitutional Council is an integral part of Ivorian electoral process, its decision must be respected.

Kobojunkie:

It is not . . . well, not according to the Ivorian Constitution. The Electoral commission is a body INDEPENDENT of the constitutional council. Granted the IEC announcing the results from Ouattara's campaign headquarters is cause for concern, the actions of the constitutional council however was most definitely UNCONSTITUTIONAL.

Well, by the Ivorian law, the Constitutional Council is the final authority on elections matters though there is the Ivorian Supreme Court.

Please explain how it is unconstitutional for the Council to make a pronouncement or make a decision?

Let me explain a bit, in the Nigerian electoral law, the Court of Appeal is the final arbiter for Governorship while Supreme Court is for the Presidential. And like in the Edo State case, the court or judicial power have rights to nullify certain aspects of any election results. In Edo State's case, some wards were nullified and from the results of remaining places, Oshiomole was declared the winner. Was this not accepted, did we not all jubilate?

Now tell me, would you have felt very well with yourself if the US Ambassador to Nigeria have said, he witnessed the elections on that day and since to him, it felt free and fair, then the Appeals court have no reason to declare Oshiomole the winner? Would you?


Now you must ask one question, WY would the International community say that a constitutionally provided for body in a sovereign state cannot be respected? When the Electoral Commission was making his announcement, was it to Ivorians or to the French embassy or the International Communities? If to the Ivorian people, why was there no Ivorian media present? If you talk of intimation, the I would ask, where was the section of Ivorian media that supported him, did those ones also fail to show up?

Another issue is this, how come all the African observers registered the election rigging in the north but the international observers didn't see the same situation. The International observers practically said all the African Observers were liars for reporting what they saw. You might want to google the reports to read first hand.

So in an election for the entire country, only the UN Observer could tell the world what has acceptable and what was not? Would you accept that for Nigeria?
In the 2007 elections in Nigeria, the International Observers saw all the rigging, what did they do, they accepted it and supported Yar'adua. It all depends on their interest. Right now, the rigging by Africans is in their interest and it must be defended staunchly even if Ivory Coast has to descend to war.

Mind you my distate for injustics far outweihts my disdain for colonialist.