A nervous Ivory Coast yesterday put final touches to preparations for a presidential election that has been postponed six times in five years, with incumbent Laurent Gbagbo saying he will win and warning of violence from the losers.
‘The day of truth,’ read the main headlines in newspapers, as 5.7 million people prepared to vote for a total of 14 candidates in today’s poll which aims to turn the page on a decade of political turbulence and civil war.
But Gbagbo warned of violence from disappointed supporters of his chief rivals, former president Henri Konan Bedie and former prime minister Alassane Ouattara, whom he expects to beat.
“The violence will come from those who lose. And as I am not going to lose...” he said in an interview with the French Journal du Dimanche.
Gbagbo, who came to power in 2000 and survived a coup attempt two years later that left the country divided between his government in the south and rebels in the north, justified his staying in office for five years beyond the expiry of his mandate. “I stayed in power for 10 years because there was a war. I am proud to have kept in place the republic’s institutions,” he said.
The Independent Electoral Commission worked frantically yesterday to finalise preparations for the poll.
Deliveries of voters’ cards was expected to continue through today, while election workers put the finishing touches to polling stations.
Polls open at 9 a.m. and close at 7 p.m.
The commission has three days to announce provisional results, but aims to give a result tomorrow, one of its vice-presidents, Amadou Soumahoro, told AFP.
Election officials say speed is of the essence so that no camp can unilaterally claim victory or qualification for a run-off, provoking confusion and potentially triggering violence.
A run-off vote is scheduled to take place in two weeks’ time if needed.
The army is unable to deploy the 8,000 troops it had originally promised to guarantee security during the poll, according to sources.
In the north of the country, additional support will come from former rebel troops, while in the south extra police will be deployed. The UN’s 8,000-strong force in the country is ready to provide support.
Authorities yesterday suspended text messaging services, which the opposition claimed was a sign Gbagbo intended to manipulate the results.
Once hailed as a model of west African stability, Ivory Coast has drifted through years of political unrest, squandering gains made during the ‘Ivorian miracle’ brought about by ‘father of the nation’ Felix Houphouet-Boigny, president from independence from France in 1960 to his death in 1993.