Opposition may get victory in Ivory Coast vote

Opposition may get victory in Ivory Coast vote

ABIDJAN (Agencies): Early returns Monday showed an opposition
candidate in a close race with the junta leader in Ivory Coast's
elections, billed as a return to civilian government 10 months
after a military coup.

Opposition leader Laurent Gbagbo predicted victory over Gen.
Robert Guei, although the votes counted so far from Sunday's
election came from mainly rural areas and small towns. Ballots in
major cities, including Abidjan, had yet to be tabulated.

Gbagbo had 51.35 percent and Guei had 40.40 percent of the
126,683 ballots counted so far, a national election commission
official announced on state-run television. The remaining votes
were divided between three minor candidates.

Final results remained far from clear. The preliminary figures
accounted for a tiny fraction of the total possible vote from
about 5.5 million registered voters.

Turnout figures were incomplete, although voting often was
reported at less than 30 percent in a random check Sunday of
polling stations in Ivorian cities.

Election officials reported a turnout of just 34 percent in
the areas counted so far. Voters were nearly nonexistent in many
parts of Korhogo, the main city in the north and a stronghold of
support for the disqualified main opposition leader, Alassane
Dramane Ouattara.

The country's two largest political parties boycotted the
ballot after their leaders were barred from running.

Gbagbo - a former history professor and left-leaning
politician - was the only candidate who posed a threat to the
junta leader.

He said victory looked apparent.
"We believe we have won," he told cheering supporters at his
campaign headquarters early Monday morning.

International observers reported minor irregularities,
including missing voting materials and confusion over electoral
procedures, but attributed the problems to "disorder, not
malice," said an official for the European Union, which had about
30 observers across the country.

Most candidates, including those from the country's two
largest political parties, were disqualified last month by the
Supreme Court. Those two parties, Ouattara's Rally of the
Republicans and the former ruling Democratic Party of the Ivory
Coast, called the boycott.

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 truly free and fair election impossible.

Guei (pronounced GAY-EE), whose own soldiers have staged two
mutinies since the coup and who, officials say, survived an
assassination attempt in September, has barely appeared in public
during the campaign, apparently fearful of his security.

Guei has seen his popularity plummet since the December coup,
when cheering crowds filled the streets of some neighborhoods to
welcome the ouster of President Henri Konan Bedie, who was widely
seen as corrupt and ethnically divisive.

Gbagbo (pronounced BAHG-bo), for his part, has long said he
believed most voters would oppose Guei, who for many remains a
soldier - albeit one who now sports a suit and tie.

Many of Gbagbo's supporters were already addressing him as
"president," and warned they would take to the streets if he was
not declared the winner.

However, Ivory Coast's ruling junta was adamant Monday that
Gen. Robert Guei would win the presidential election in the face
of open triumphalism from opposition candidate Laurent Gbagbo.

"We will win and win well," said Capt. Henri Sama, junta
Communications Minister speaking to journalists at Guei's
campaign headquarters.

"The only results that count are those of the National
Electoral Commission," repeated Sama.

The minister said Guei's camp was "ready to recognize the
verdict of the ballot box" and called on the FPI to do the same
when the results are finally announced.

Official result from 7.8 percent of the electorate gave Gbagbo
an overall majority with 51.35 percent and Guei 40.40 percent.