Share & more
Only about 13.3 percent of registered voters participated in by-elections on Sunday in northern Cote d’Ivoire, the national electoral commission announced on Monday.
Legislative elections held on 10 December in the rest of the country were postponed in the north following unrest sparked by the rejection of the candidature of the leader of the opposition Rassemblement des Republicains (RDR), Alassane Ouattara. The RDR, which protested by withdrawing from the October polls, did not take part in Sunday’s by-election.
No voting took place in Kong, Ouattara’s home region, which has two seats in parliament. Civil servants who had been chased from the area in December have not yet returned, according to the CNE, which said the by-election would be held there at a later date.
The former ruling Parti democratique de Cote d’Ivoire (PDCI) took 15 seats in Sunday’s poll, while seven went to independents.
There are 225 seats in Cote d’Ivoire’s parliament. Of the 223 already decided, President Laurent Gbagbo’s Front populaire ivoirien has 96, the PDCI has 94, and 11 went to four other parties. The remaining 22 are independents.
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