Gbagbo’s party rejects results of Ivory Coast vote

Former Ivorian president Laurent Gbagbo’s party has rejected the results of last month’s local and senatorial elections won by the ruling party.

The African People’s Party – Ivory Coast (PPA-CI) “rejects the results of the local and senatorial elections that were obtained mainly through fraudulent manoeuvers”, party spokesman Justin Kone Katinan told a news conference in Abidjan on Saturday.

He accused the country’s Independent Electoral Commission of being “the first accomplice, if not the initiator, of the multitude of cases of fraud”.

He cited, among other alleged irregularities, the equipment at polling stations.

The party also pointed to “biased security forces” who it said “passively watched the destruction of electoral materials” in some offices, accusing them of being “brutal” towards the opposition.

Election observers noted some altercations at polling stations.

The PPA-CI also accused President Alassane Ouattara’s ruling Houphouetists for Democracy and Peace party (RHDP) of “vote buying”.

The ruling party secured a landslide win in municipal and regional elections, which were held on September 2 and 16, respectively.

The elections were the first since Gbagbo returned to Ivory Coast in June 2021 after being acquitted by the International Criminal Court on human rights charges linked to post-electoral violence in 2011.

Gbagbo was not able to vote after being struck from the electoral roll due to a conviction in Ivory Coast linked to the 2011 crisis.

The polls were seen as an indication of support for the leading political groups two years ahead of presidential elections in the West African nation, a regional economic power and leading cocoa exporter.

AFP