13th December, 2010
The man widely recognised as winner of Ivory Coast’s disputed presidential poll has said incumbent Laurent Gbagbo must concede power to allow for talks.
A spokesman for Alassane Ouattara said he did not oppose dialogue but no talks could take place until he was recognised as president by everyone.
The African Union has suspended Ivory Coast while Mr. Gbagbo stays in office.
The election was intended to reunite the world’s largest cocoa producer after a civil war in 2002. Ivory Coast’s electoral commission has declared that Mr. Ouattara won the 28 November run-off election by 54.1 percent to 45.9 percent.
But the political stalemate shows no sign of ending soon, the BBC’s John James reports.
Mr. Ouattara has appointed a new prime minister, ex-rebel Guillaume Soro, and has said he will start work in his official office next week.
But the building is still under the control of Mr. Gbagbo.
With both Mr. Gbagbo and Mr. Ouattara having taken oaths of office and appointed governments, Mr. Ouattara’s administration is currently under UN protection at a hotel in the city of Abidjan.
Mr. Gbagbo has the support of several leading generals and control of state television. One of his key allies also controls the country’s constitutional council, which overturned the election results saying large numbers of votes cast in the north, Mr. Ouattara’s home regions, were fraudulent.
On Thursday, Mr. Gbagbo said he was open to negotiation. But he refused offers to go into exile and seems to want some kind of power-sharing deal, an option the opposition rejects outright, our correspondent says. The crisis has hit the Ivorian economy hard and economics may eventually tip the balance in Mr. Ouattara’s favour, if the government struggles to pay workers salaries.
