Brussels, 27/10/2000 (Agence Europe) - The European Union's electoral observer mission that was deployed in the Ivory Coast since August 2000, has just ended work on the presidential elections of 22 October. Its conclusions have just been made public, at a time when confrontations have broken out in the Ivory Coast between those defending the verdict of the ballot, which makes Laurent Gbagbo the Republic's President, and those calling for a new ballot, enabling Alassane Ouattara, former Prime Minister ousted from the elections for "not being a genuine Ivory coast ethnic national" to stand. The division is fuelling a polemic on an international scale between those in favour of the status quo (like France) and those, like the UN and the United States, desperately calling for new elections to be held.
The conclusions of the electoral mission relate exclusively to the way the elections were held, limited to the five candidates allowed to stand. They are summarized in a declaration from the head of the mission, Mr. Gwyn Morgan. Here are the essential elements:
- The decision of the Supreme Court eliminating 14 of the 19 candidates from the presidential election significantly reduced the democratic basis of the elections. Several countries and organisations pulled out of the presidential elections observation process;
- For the first time in the country's history, the organisation of an election was handed to an independent commission. The electoral lists were on the whole of a good quality;
- The electoral campaign (from 7 to 21 October) was conducted until 13 October under the regime of a state of emergency, not very compatible with the normal exercise of civil liberties. On the backdrop of orders to abstain by the two main political parties, it raised only little interest in the initial phase, warming up slightly in the days preceding the ballot. Generally-speaking, the campaigning was undertaken in calm conditions: around 75% of the isolated incidents signaled in two regions (acts of at times violent intimidation) were provoked by supporters of Robert Guei or the forces of law and order.
- All candidates had equal access to official campaign slots in the audiovisual media. The treatment they received in the editorial parts of these media, however, was not equitable, and the principle of equal access for all candidates was not respected. The campaign of the candidate Robert Guei received privileged coverage to the detriment of the other candidates;
- No major irregularity was noted, in the balloting and counting operations, of a nature to place into question the transparency and fairness of the electoral operations. The problems encountered, mainly of a technical or organisational origin, were not of a magnitude that could place the credibility of the results into question;
- The mission notes with regret that the turnout rate did not exceed 35%, while aware of the factors that contributed to this massive abstention, and denounces the dissolution of the national electoral commission that had carried out its task correctly.
The results announced by the Internal Ministry, proclaiming the candidate Robert Guei as having been elected certainly do not correspond to the information gather by the electoral observation mission.
