Ivory Coast expatriates from former ruling party back Bedie

ABIDJAN, Ivory Coast (Reuters) -- Overseas activists of Ivory Coast's former ruling party have nominated ousted president Henri Konan Bedie as their candidate in a presidential election scheduled for September 17.

Seraphin Boni, head of the French branch of the Democratic Party (PDCI), told Reuters in Abidjan by telephone that representatives of overseas PDCI branches had thrown their weight behind Bedie at a conference in Paris on Saturday.

They will put Bedie's name forward at a PDCI conference called for August 12 in Ivory Coast to choose the party's candidate.

"We think that he will be confirmed on August 12," Boni said. "President Henri Konan Bedie is supported by a large majority of the ordinary members of our party."

France, the West African country's former colonial power, hosts the largest Ivorian expatriate community -- an estimated 30,000 people.

Bedie was overthrown in a military coup December 24, 1999. He fled into exile in Paris, from where he has insisted that he will return to be the PDCI candidate in the election.

Bedie did not attend the Paris conference for security reasons.

Military ruler General Robert Guei told PDCI leaders in Ivory Coast last week that the time was not right for Bedie to return home, citing security reasons.

They accepted this, but expressed hope that Bedie could return soon. The party leadership within Ivory Coast remains divided on whether he should be the candidate and is struggling to come up with a compromise nominee.

Guei has refused to say whether he will seek the post. There are rumors that he may be put forward as the PDCI candidate as some PDCI barons are desperate to recover the grip on power they held from independence in 1960 until the December coup.

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