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President Laurent Gbagbo’s Front Populaire Ivorien (FPI) won 96 of the 196 seats decided in Sunday’s legislative elections in Cote d’Ivoire, while 77 went to the Parti democratique de Cote d’Ivoire (PDCI), the national electoral commission reported on Wednesday.
Sixteen seats went to independents and four parties shared the remaining seven, according to the commission, which said 33.12 percent of the electorate voted.
The PDCI, which ruled the country from independence in 1960 until last December’s coup, had held 147 of the 175 seats in the previous parliament, whose membership was increased this year from 175 to 225. The FPI had 13 seats.
The other major party in the country, the Rassemblement des Republicains (RDR) boycotted the polls because the Supreme Court invalidated the candidature of its leader, Alassane Ouattara. Elections were not held in most constituencies in the north due to unrest that followed the court’s ruling. Voting will take place on 7 January in these constituencies and one other where the death of a candidate led to the postponement of the polls.
A run-off will be held on 17 December in another constituency in which two candidates tied for first place.
Meanwhile, the RDR decided on Wednesday to take part in municipal polls to be held on 28 January.
This article was produced by IRIN News while it was part of the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. Please send queries on copyright or liability to the UN. For more information: https://shop.un.org/rights-permissions
