General explains his reasons for running for president

The leader of Cote d’Ivoire’s transitional government, General Robert Guei, told groups gathered at the presidential palace on Saturday to support his candidature that he had decided to seek election not because he wanted power but because the ruling council needed more time to complete its work.

Guei heads the all-military Conseil National de Salut Publique (CNSP) that forms the backbone of the Ivoirian government since the overthrow in December 1999 of president Henri Konan Bedie. Guei recalled that he had originally said that the CNSP would “sweep the house (clean up the country) and then leave”. However, he said, “the CNSP has not finished its work” which “has to be completed so as to render the work of Houphouet-Boigny perennial”.

[The late Felix Houphouet-Boigny, the country’s first president, is viewed by many as a symbol of the Ivoirian nation.]

Guei said that while the CNSP needed time to finish the job, it could not extend the transition since transitional regimes receive no outside assistance. “These are the reasons why we have submitted our candidature,” he said.