Election deadline may slip, prime minister

Cote d’Ivoire’s mediator prime minister Charles Konan Banny, brought in to invigorate a hobbling peace process, told reporters in France that an existing 31 October deadline for presidential elections may be delayed. Banny wound up his first official visit as premier to former colonial power France on Thursday, which included meetings with President Jacques Chirac and Defence Minister Michele Alliot-Marie and donors. “Cote d’Ivoire is in a good position for resolving the crisis, but the possibility of a delay to the existing election deadline cannot be excluded,” Banny told reporters on Wednesday. Cote d’Ivoire is split between a government controlled south and a rebel-held north after insurgents attempted to oust President Laurent Gbagbo in an unsuccessful coup in 2002. A cease-fire and peace deal was brokered by France in a matter of months but a succession of mediators has failed to foster a spirit of cooperation and reconciliation between the opponents. One of Banny’s key achievements since taking office in December, say analysts, has been bringing all the sides – the government, the armed and the unarmed opposition – together for face-to-face talks on Ivorian soil. But even that has gone awry this week. A third round of disarmament talks failed to take place in the capital Yamoussoukro on Wednesday after rebel representatives said that they were prevented from attending by government security forces at a road block. “Obviously we prepared this morning to go to the meeting at Yamoussoukro. But unfortunately there were major incidents at our entry into Yamoussoukro. Spirits got overheated, which is inadmissible at the time when we speak about reconciliation and peace,” said General Soumaila Bakayoko of the New Forces rebels who led the party. Despite the new air of optimism that Banny has brought, diplomats say that he has everything still to do including disarming thousands of rebels and pro-government militia. Also outstanding is the identification and issuing of voting cards for up to 3 million people. President Gbagbo was granted an additional year in office under UN resolution 1633 after elections failed to take place in October 2005. Earlier this week, UN Secretary General Kofi Annan named Gerard Stoudmann of Switzerland as his High Representative for the Elections in Cote d’Ivoire taking the place of Antonio Monteiro who relinquished his post in Mid-March.