Cote D’Ivoire Poll Results Delayed
Abidjan, Cote D’Ivoire
The electoral commission in Cote D’Ivoire has delayed poll results for Sunday’s closely contested presidential elections, first ever open democratic elections since country’s independence.
The commission’s spokesman was cut short on Tuesday while trying to announce the results after election commission members allied to incumbent President Laurent Gbagbo tore up the results from the rebel controlled north for wide spread fraud and intimidation.
Supporters of the opposition leader Alassane Ouattara have accused the president of trying to block official announcement because he had lost.
Head of the electoral commission Youssouf Bakoyoko said they are working to reach a consensus on the disputed results. Sources claim that the commission has agreed on results from 13 of the country’s 19 regions, with the remaining still being contested.
US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has called on both leaders to respect the results that would be announced and act in a responsible and peaceful manner, urging them not to interfere with counting and announcement of results.
The UN spokesman in the country Hamadoun Toure termed the second round of the election to have been held in a generally democratic climate, but expressed disappointment over breaking of promises to publish the second round’s results quickly.
Tension in the country is high as commercial centers in the capital, Abidjan are almost deserted, with heavy presence of security forces in the capital. A 19:00-06:00 curfew has been extended until Sunday following an earlier presidential announcement.
Gbagbo, a southerner and former teacher won the first round with 38 percent against Ouattara’s 32 percent in the first round of polls held in October. Ouattara, former Prime Minister, hails from the predominantly Muslim north that has been partly under New Forces rebel rule since 2002.
The two candidates represent two sides, north-south that have existed divided religiously, culturally and administratively. The New Forces rebels signed a power-sharing deal with the government in 2007.
Abuja, Nigeria
Government Forces Overrun Niger Delta’s Militants
Nigeria’s Joint Military Task Force (JTF) engaged a Niger Delta rebel movement in heavy fighting on Wednesday in its latest strike of the ongoing operations to rid off the region from criminal gangs.
A local newspaper, The Daily Independent reported that JTF troops seized camps belonging to a rebel group under the wider Niger Delta Liberation Force (NDLF) rebel movement in Ayakiromo and Okirika in the Niger Delta.
It’s believed that the group’s leader John Togo might have been arrested during the operation in which the militants were completely overcome by the government forces, resulting in the overrunning of its bases. No clear casualty figures in the operation have been released lately.
The NDLF in statement through its spokesman Mark Anthony has called for the federal government to disband the JTF in efforts to sustain peace in the region, terming it as an army of occupation. They said the continued stay of JTF in the area has led to more violence, since after years of its formation it cannot guarantee peace nor protect oil stations and pipeline in Niger Delta.
Country’s chief of defence staff Air Chief Oluseyi Petirin that commitment by the government to develop the region and grant amnesty to militias have helped solve some of the issues, saying the government wont sit and allow criminals to derail the country’s economy.
Conflict in the Niger Delta arose when a number of indigenous ethnic groups in the region took up arms in protest against exploitation by foreign oil corporations. The Niger Delta accounts for about 75 per cent of the country’s total oil revenue but no much development has been carried out in the area to show of it, with over half of its 30 million population living in abject poverty.
Ethnic unrest and conflicts have seen widespread of small arms in the area that has claimed thousands of innocent lives in the conflict.