Opposition candidate Gbagbo claims Ivorian presidency

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Scenes of Ivory Coast protest in the streets of Abidjan

Guei flees as banned candidate demands new election

In this story: Gbagbo pledges reconciliation Junta leaders resign Some police support protesters RELATED STORIES, SITES

From staff and wire reports

ABIDJAN, Ivory Coast -- Opposition leader Laurent Gbagbo staked his claim to the Ivorian presidency on Wednesday after an angry uprising against military ruler Robert Guei, who had named himself the winner of a disputed election.

Guei, who seized power in a December 1999 coup, disbanded the National Election Commission before proclaiming himself the winner of Sunday's presidential vote on Tuesday. Thousands of Gbagbo supporters took to the streets after the government announcement, battling soldiers loyal to the coup leader and swaying other soldiers to join their side.

Prime Minister Seydou Elimane Diarra, who resigned from the government on Monday, announced on Wednesday that voting results clearly showed Gbagbo won Sunday's election.

VIDEO Video of the protests and shooting Play video (QuickTime, Real or Windows Media) CNN's Glenn Van Zutphen reports on violent protests sparked by allegations of voting fraud in Ivory Coast Play video (QuickTime, Real or Windows Media)     ALSO Peaceful protests in Ivory Coast provincial towns

Guei fled to neighboring Benin in the wake of the protests, joining family members who preceded him there.

Meanwhile, supporters of former Prime Minister Alassane Ouattara, who had been barred from running for president by Ivory Coast's Supreme Court, took to the streets in the wake of Guei's departure and demanded a new election.

"Our activists have gone out into the streets. They say that (former colonial power) France wants to impose Gbagbo on us. They say that's very serious, that's going to mean war," said an official of Ouattara's Rally of the Republicans (RDR) party. "They say Gbagbo is an accomplice of Guei; everybody should have been a candidate."

Gbagbo, the Socialist Ivorian Popular Front (FPI) candidate, was the only political heavyweight left in the race when the Ivorian Supreme Court barred most candidates, including Ouattara -- the former prime minister who had been Guei's chief rival -- from running.

Former president Henri Konan Bedie, the leader ousted by the military junta last winter, and ex-Cabinet minister Emile Constant Bombet, who now heads the former ruling party, were other major candidates banned from the ballot.

Gbagbo pledges reconciliation

After several key resignations on Wednesday from the military junta that kept him in power, Guei's absence left a chaotic Abidjan to Gbagbo's triumphant address.

Speaking to hundreds of cheering supporters outside his headquarters and to the nation later on state radio and television, Gbagbo pledged national reconciliation and assured the international community that Ivory Coast, the world's top cocoa producer, would respect its international commitments.

"You went out in the hundreds of thousands. I pay particular homage to those who died in the cause of this. We will give them a funeral befitting their courage," he said.

More than 50 people were killed in two days of clashes, many of them shot by soldiers loyal to Guei, according to Gbagbo's party. The death toll could not be independently confirmed.

But Gbagbo's proclamation did not signal the end of the violence. Sporadic clashes were reported throughout the city, and pro-Gbagbo soldiers were trying to convince junta supporters to lay down their arms.

Junta leaders resign

Diarra's announcement of Gbagbo's victory followed on the heels of the resignation of a key member of Ivory Coast's military junta, Capt. Henri Cesar Sama, who claimed Gbagbo won the vote and urged the arrest of military ruler Guei.

Defecting security forces of military leader Gen. Robert Guei are welcomed by Ivory Coast opposition protesters in Abidjan on Wednesday

"I've resigned," said Sama. "The truth is Gbagbo won the election. I am not a cheat."

Gbabgo's supporters filled the streets almost immediately after Guei claimed victory, protesting that he was trying to steal the election. They used rocks, bottles and whatever other projectiles were at hand to attack soldiers who used automatic gunfire and grenades to block their progress.

The protests continued through the night and into Wednesday, amid an international rebuke of Guei, who claimed he was justified because of irregularities in the vote.

Guei had promised to return Ivory Coast to civilian rule and pledged not to run for president in the elections. But he reversed himself to stand for the post when he announced the vote's date.

Some police support protesters

Sama and Diarra's resignations indicated support for Guei may be waning. The U.S.-based National Public Radio journalist Kenneth Walker, in Abidjan, told CNN that Gbagbo supporters were using police stations as "hang-outs," and that there was no apparent tension between the protesters and paramilitary police.

Additionally, Walker said, some soldiers had defected, and some opposition supporters said that only a small portion of the military -- the "red berets" loyal to Guei -- remained to back him.

Junta officials, announcing that Guei had won, said the military ruler took 52.72 percent of the vote against 41.02 for Gbagbo, with three lesser-known candidates sharing the remaining votes.

Gbagbo, however, said he had 59.58 percent of the vote compared with 32.91 percent for Guei. Neither claim could be verified.

The United Nations, the Organization of African Unity, the European Union and countries such as the United States and Canada withdrew election observers or funding, saying the exclusion of major opponents made a free and fair election impossible.

The December coup, which began as an army pay mutiny, destroyed Ivory Coast's reputation as a bastion of regional calm. The country's economy has also been battered by a steep decline in the prices of its main exports, coffee and cocoa.

Guei declares himself winner of Ivory Coast election
October 24, 2000
Winner unclear as Ivory Coast vote results trickle to unexplained halt
October 23, 2000
Ivory Coast braces for historic election
October 19, 2000
State of emergency holds Ivory Coast in check ahead of court ruling
October 6, 2000
Ivory Coast leader's home attacked
September 18, 2000

Organization of African Unity
Amnesty International 2000 country report, Ivory Coast
U.S. Department of State, Human Rights Reports for 1999: Cote d'Ivoire
Library of Congress, Country Study, Ivory Coast

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