October elections "almost impossible", UN

It will be almost impossible to hold peace-sealing presidential elections on schedule in Cote d'Ivoire on 30 October, said the UN special envoy charged with organising the polls on Thursday. Speaking at a weekly press briefing by the UN peacekeeping mission in Cote d'Ivoire, ONUCI, special envoy Antonio Monteiro stressed that though elections were possible and indeed essential to peace in Cote d'Ivoire, hopes of meeting the looming poll deadline were fading by the day. "We have to be realistic. The objective is to organise free and fair elections ... democratic elections that are acceptable to everybody. I will never authenticate something that does not correspond to an honest and credible process," said Monteiro. "Now it's going to be difficult to do, or almost impossible," he added. New Forces rebels who have held the northern half of Cote d'Ivoire since a failed coup in September 2002, last week dealt a hard blow to the peace process when their leader, Guillaume Soro, said the polls would not be taking place in their territories. Since then opposition parties have echoed the rebels' chime, highlighting the fact that the body charged with overseeing the polling process, the Independent Electoral Commission, has yet to be set up and a new voter register has neither been drawn up nor published. However, officially it falls to Monteiro to change the polling date. And to ensure that the polls can take place, Monteiro indicated that Ivorian laws might have to be changed. "We have local laws to respect. The Ivorian constitution stipulates that voters' lists have to be published 90 days before the presidential elections. Either we agree to change these laws, or we will need more time," said Monteiro. The UN election supremo said it would be up to the parties in the conflict to address such issues within the Independent Electoral Commission, a body he hoped to see up and running next week. "We start work next week and we will see who wants the elections and who doesn't want the elections," said the former Portuguese cabinet minister. Another burning quesion however is what will happen if the election fails to be held on time, when President Laurent Gbagbo's mandate runs out. Gbagbo has said that should the election be postponed, he will remain de facto president despite the expiry of his term. But the rebels and opposition parties would prefer to see a transitional government put in place. Monteiro and the head of the ONUCI mission Pierre Schori declined to side with either the government or the rebels preferring instead to focus on more practical matters. "I am focused on getting a new impetus now. It's important that both sides do what they have to do and take risks for peace," Schori told IRIN in an interview. Disarmament of rebel fighters, a precursor to reunifying the country holding the elections, will be supervised by the UN but has yet to begin. "We have to start working on concrete things - we don't want people sulking in the corner," Schori said. "They have roles to play, so let's start playing them."