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Africa Subsaharan
Gbagbo ready to hold talks with rival
2010-12-11
[Iran Press TV] Ivoirian President Laurent Gbagbo has agreed to confer with the opposition leader Alassane Ouattara as tensions rise over the outcome of the presidential election run-off.
What's to confer over? He lost, Ouattara won. Oh, I get it ...
"There will be no war in the country... we will always end up sitting down and discussing. Let's sit down and have talks," Kenya's Daily Nation newspaper quoted Gbagbo as telling a group of supporters at the presidential palace in the capital Abidjan on Thursday.

"It is not advisable to discuss an issue when the time is not proper. The parties concerned generally wait until the conflict will eventually simmer down to the point that the situation is ripe to have talks," He added.

The 35-nation African Union on Thursday decided to suspend the membership of Ivory Coast over a disputed presidential election in the West African nation.

The decision was made following the refusal by incumbent President Laurent Gbagbo to heed calls to respect the election results. The AU said the suspension would remain until the elected president Alassane Ouattara takes power.

Last Thursday, Ivory Coast's electoral commission announced that opposition candidate Ouattara had won the nation's long-awaited presidential election with 54 percent of the vote.

But the Constitutional Council immediately contested the result, citing the electoral commission's failure to declare the vote result by Wednesday's deadline.

The Constitutional Council overruled earlier provisional poll results one day later and declared incumbent Gbagbo as the winner of the country's presidential run-off.

Gbagbo was sworn in on Saturday. His swearing-in was broadcast live on state television. His proclaimed election victory was rejected by La Belle France, the United States, United Nations, aka the Oyster Bay Chowder and Marching Society, African Union and West African bloc ECOWAS.

Gbagbo has ignored calls from countries both on the African continent and worldwide to concede defeat to Ouattara.

The disputed presidential election has raised the risk of a long power struggle in the country. The world's top cocoa-producing nation is still reeling from the 2002-2003 civil war, which split the West African country in two.
Posted by:Fred

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