Senegal leader presses Ivory Coast on polls

By Marc Koffi

ABIDJAN, Ivory Coast (Reuters) -- Senegalese President Abdoulaye Wade held fresh talks on Tuesday with Ivory Coast's army ruler, General Robert Guei, on a proposal that Ivorian elections be postponed in an effort to defuse political tensions.

A source close to Wade said he had stayed on after the departure of six other African leaders from an Organization of African Unity (OAU) delegation to Abidjan on Monday.

Guei declined to travel to a summit in Togo on Sunday for security reasons and stopped Ivorian politicians from going.

His residence in Abidjan was attacked a week ago in what he says was an assassination attempt. Two junta members have since been dismissed from government posts and gone to ground.

The OAU leaders recommended that parliamentary elections be delayed by two months from October 29 and a presidential vote by four months from October 22, Ivorian party officials said.

The elections are meant to restore democratic rule after a military coup in December 1999.

Guei is one of 19 declared candidates for the presidency, along with former Prime Minister Alsassane Ouattara.

Ouattara's candidacy has been at the heart of the Ivorian crisis since before the coup. His opponents, including ousted President Henri Konan Bedie and now Guei, say he is not Ivorian and is thus ineligible to stand for president. Ouattara says he meets all the criteria laid out in the constitution.

Sources at Monday's meeting said the OAU team's initial proposal was that Guei step down as a candidate and that all other candidates be allowed to stand.

The sources said Guei was angry at the proposal and saw the visit by the African leaders as an imposition.

"They came to make certain proposals, some of which are unacceptable. We listened to them out of courtesy, but we'll do what we have to do," one source close to Guei told Reuters.

"These people are tourists. They should go to the beach and not prevent us from doing our job," said Kouassi N'Guessan, a spokesman for a group of pro-Guei parties and organizations loosely grouped in the Presidential Circle.

National unity government

The African leaders, led by Togolese president and current OAU chairman Gnassingbe Eyadema, also suggested that Guei should oversee the transition as head of a national unity government. This proposal remains on the table.

A delegation source said the OAU leaders believed Guei's decision to stand in the presidential election would undermine the credibility of the vote. Some Western governments, notably the United States, take the same line.

"They don't want him to be a candidate or at least they want him to step down from the junta if he wants to stand," a member of one of the delegations said.

The Ivorian political parties had mixed views on the OAU proposals, but only the left-leaning Ivorian Popular Front (FPI) immediately said it was opposed to a delay in the timetable.

The Supreme Court is due to rule before October 7 on which candidates will be allowed to run in the election.

Various sources said the list had been ready since Saturday but senior officials had decided to delay an announcement until after the OAU mission had left.

It is widely expected that Ouattara will be excluded, along with Emile Constant Bombet, candidate for the former ruling Democratic Party (PDCI) of ex-President Bedie.

The public prosecutor reactivated a corruption case in early September and Bombet would be ineligible to stand for president if charges are pressed.

The group of leaders in the OAU mission included Thabo Mbeki of South Africa and Nigeria's Olusegun Obasanjo, leaders of sub-Saharan Africa's two biggest economies, demonstrating the disquiet felt within the OAU at events in Ivory Coast.

The cocoa-producing country has the third biggest economy in Africa and until the December coup was considered a haven of stability on the turbulent African continent.

Copyright 2000 Reuters. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

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