International calls for new Ivory Coast election

PARIS, Oct 25 (Reuters) -- African and European leaders on Wednesday demanded fresh elections in Ivory Coast after a Yugoslav-style "people's power" uprising chased military ruler General Robert Guei from power.

Tens of thousands of demonstrators in the capital Abidjan toppled Guei, self-proclaimed winner of Sunday's presidential election, and swept Socialist leader Laurent Gbagbo to power.

The Francophone group of French-speaking nations, of which Ivory Coast is a member, called for fresh presidential elections in the former French colony and the world's top cocoa producer.

The parliamentary assembly of the Francophone group condemned Guei's attempt to proclaim himself the winner of Sunday's poll. It said the ban on some of the main presidential candidates had made the election unfair anyway.

French President Jacques Chirac threatened the Ivory Coast with European Union sanctions after Guei staged what Chirac called an "attempted coup de force" and rigging of the election result.

France currently holds the rotating European Union presidency.

South African President Thabo Mbeki also called for fresh all-inclusive elections in Ivory Coast to prevent the West African nation from sliding further into trouble.

Guei had called Sunday's presidential election and a parliamentary poll set for December 10 to return the country to constitutional rule after coming to power in the traditionally stable country's first military coup last December.

But the people took to the streets after Guei dissolved the National Electoral Commission that organized Sunday's vote and proclaimed himself the winner.

Before the election, Gbagbo had threatened Belgrade-style popular protests if he was cheated of victory. He had led the fight that brought multi-party politics to the country for the first time in 1990.

The unrest in Ivory Coast saw London cocoa futures jump higher on Wednesday, but many operators adopted a wait-and-see attitude over supply. The country accounts for nearly 50 percent of global production.

In a nationally broadcast address over television and radio, Gbagbo pledged national reconciliation and said Ivory Coast would respect its international commitments. His Ivorian Popular Front (FPI) put the death toll in two days of protests in Abidjan at around 60.

U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan criticized Guei for trying to violate the rights of the people twice within a year.

"The days of a coup d-etat, the days of manipulation of elections are over," he said.

The Paris daily Le Monde linked Guei and Yugoslavia's ousted leader Slobodan Milosevic in a front-page cartoon, showing the Ivorian general announcing his victory and the Serbian strongman arriving to take up exile in Ivory Coast saying, "I think I'll like it here."

"This is a bad year for authoritarian rulers," commented Berlin's Tageszeitung daily.

"After Peru's Alberto Fujimori and Slobodan Milosevic tripped over their attempts to manipulate elections, Robert Guei has suffered a debacle in Ivory Coast in the elections that he called himself."

The European Union and the United States denounced Guei's bid to maintain power by what Washington called "gross violations of democratic practice."

But several commentators mixed criticism of Guei with warnings against overdrawing a portrait of Gbagbo as the plucky democrat who unseated a dictator.

"On the surface, this could seem like a great victory for democracy," France Inter radio said. "Opposition forces in Belgrade, as in Dakar or Abidjan, have learned to organize to ensure their electoral victories are not stolen from them.

"But a bit of prudence is in order. Gbagbo was the first one in Ivory Coast to deliver xenophobic speeches," it said, adding Gbagbo's party was part of Guei's government and he agreed with the disqualification of other opposition candidates on grounds they were not native-born citizens.

"Gbagbo campaigned with demagogic speeches against the corrupt elite and their foreign friends, spoke against the foreigners and immigrants -- which make up a third of the population -- and announced he would close the borders if he were elected president," Tageszeitung wrote.

"Now he must prove in this function that his socialism is not a National Socialism."

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