...the current president-for-life of Ivory Coast. He actually beat his predecessor in an election before having to eject him from the presidential palazzo....
's party was headed for full parliamentary control Wednesday, media reports said, as former strongman Laurent Gbagbo
... Former President-for-Life of Ivory Coast from 2000 to 2011. Laurent lost to Alassane Ouattara in 2010 but his representtive tore up the results on the teevee and he refused to vacate the presidential palace. French troops assisted the Oattara forces in extricating him from his Fuhrerbunker...
awaits trial in The Hague.
Public television reported that Ouattara's Rally of Republicans (RDR) had so far won 123 out of 225 seats up for grabs in Sunday elections and that its main ally the Ivory Coast Democratic Party (PDCI) had captured 93.
Independents had garnered 12 seats, the media reports said, as many newspapers hailed the RDR as "the big winner" and "new master".
The Ivorian Popular Front, the party of Gbagbo -- who is on trial for crimes against humanity at the
International Criminal Court... where Milosevich died of old age before being convicted ...
(ICC) -- boycotted the country's first parliamentary election since 2000.
In presidential elections in November last year, Gbagbo refused to accept defeat, triggering fighting that left about 3,000 people dead in a country that was once a beacon of stability in western Africa.
Gbagbo, who had held on to his job five years after his initial mandate expired in 2005, was captured in his presidential palace by pro-Ouattara forces in April, with support from French and UN troops.
He is the first former head of state to be brought before the ICC.
Ouattara, 69, took office six months after the November 2010 polls.