IRIN Focus on the end of an 'electoral coup'

Front populaire Ivoirien (FPI) leader Laurent
Gbagbo promised over state radio on Wednesday to announce a new government
"in the next few hours" in the latest development in a political crisis
sparked by what he described as an "electoral coup".

, Front populaire Ivoirien (FPI) leader Laurent
Gbagbo promised over state radio on Wednesday to announce a new government
"in the next few hours" in the latest development in a political crisis
sparked by what he described as an "electoral coup".

, Front populaire Ivoirien (FPI) leader Laurent
Gbagbo promised over state radio on Wednesday to announce a new government
"in the next few hours" in the latest development in a political crisis
sparked by what he described as an "electoral coup".

The crisis developed after the Interior Ministry proclaimed on Tuesday that
the leader of the ruling junta, General Robert Guei, had won presidential
elections held on 22 October. That announcement was preceded by the
dissolution of the national electoral commission, the CNE.

Gbagbo announced the rehabilitation of the CNE (Commission nationale
electorale) and said he would ask it to proclaim the results of the polls,
which he is widely believed to have won, "so that the swearing-in process
can be launched".

Shortly before Gbagbo's announcement, General Guei fled the presidential
palace by helicopter after thousands of people took to the streets in the
Abidjan, Bouake - Cote d'Ivoire's second largest town - and the southwestern
town of San Pedro to demand his resignation. AFP reported that he turned up
in Cotonou, Benin, on Wednesday afternoon.

Earlier on Wednesday there had been gunfire in Le Plateau, Abidjan's main
administrative district, as members of the military fired shots to stop the
demonstrators, who had converged on the city centre from various
neighbourhoods around the commercial capital.

Gunshots could also be heard early Wednesday morning from the direction of
Akouedo Barracks, the military camp just outside Abidjan that was at the
centre of last December's coup that toppled President Henri Konan Bedie.
However, the head of the presidential guard told his men to stop firing,
while the commander of Akouedo Barracks said on RFI that Guei should resign.

By 11:00 GMT there were signs on the streets of Abidjan that the crisis was
resolved. In a replay of the joy that had followed the December coup, scores
of soldiers ferried from Akouedo by trucks and vans shook hands with
demonstrators who had blocked the main road between the barracks and the
city centre.

This was a far cry from the situation on Tuesday when soldiers brutalised
demonstrators in Le Plateau, humiliating some of the women protesters by
undressing them. Reports than nine people were killed could not be
immediately confirmed.

In other parts of the city, knots of people could be seen at street corners
discussing the latest developments or listening to Radio France
Internationale (RFI) on shortwave. RFI can normally be heard on FM in
Abidjan but the authorities interrupted its FM broadcasts early Wednesday.
The sound of loud cheering could be heard at one intersection as RFI
announced that the state television station had been taken over by civilians
and gendarmes.

General Guei's demise was the culmination of a series of developments that
followed Sunday's presidential election.

On Monday, the military forced the CNE to stop announcing partial results of
the polls as Gbagbo headed for an apparent victory.

On Tuesday afternoon, members of the military manhandled CNE president
Honore Guie, and took him away - reportedly to the Presidential Palace -
along with other members of the commission who had refused to allow them to
take him alone. The CNE was dissolved and an Interior Ministry official
proclaimed General Guei the winner of the election with 52.72 percent of the
vote as against 41.02 percent for Gbagbo.

Guei's move was condemned by members of the international community,
including the United States and France.

However, the electoral process itself had been widely criticised since 14 of
the 19 presidential hopefuls had been deemed ineligible by the Supreme
Court. They included candidates from two of the three main parties, the
Rassemblement des Republicains (RDR) and the former ruling Parti
Democratique de Cote d'Ivoire (PDCI), both of which boycotted the polls. The
FPI was the only major party left in the race.

Certain sectors, including representatives of the Muslim community - 38.6
percent of the country's total population of some 16 million - had
complained that all Muslim candidates and those from the mainly Muslim north
of the country, had been rejected.

The US government had expressed doubts on 19 October about the fairness of
the polls and suspended its electoral assistance to Cote d'Ivoire.

The US, the Organisation of African Unity (OAU) and la Francophonie also
decided not to send observers to the election, the first since the military
overthrew Henri Konan Bedie on 24 December 1999, ending four decades of rule
by the PDCI.