ABIDJAN, Ivory Coast (AP) - Ivory Coast's long-delayed presidential election will be held Nov. 30, a top electoral official said Monday, setting a vote seen as a key step to restoring the once-stable West African country to a functioning democracy after a bitter civil war.
Electoral commission chief Robert Mambe Beugre made the announcement after a Cabinet meeting presided over by President Laurent Gbagbo.
Gbagbo's initial five-year term officially expired in October 2005, but he stayed in power because of the civil conflict, citing a constitutional clause that allows the head of state to extend his time in office if required by war or crisis.
The most recent scheduled date for elections was June. But earlier this year, Gbagbo said the ballot would be delayed because of the complexities of implementing a peace deal that ended the civil war last year.
Ivory Coast suffered its first coup in 1999 and tension about the rights of immigrants and minority ethnic groups fueled a 2002 coup attempt that sparked a war that left the world's leading cocoa producer split in half.
A peace deal in March 2007 reunited the country and made former rebel leader Guillaume Soro prime minister.
Despite the accord, former rebel soldiers still retain de facto control of the northern half of Ivory Coast. The country has struggled with disarming and dismantling the militias as well as restructuring defense forces under centralized state command. |