The new president of Cote d'Ivoire's national electoral
commission took office on Tuesday, thus removing an obstacle on the
way to the upcoming presidential elections in the war-divided
country.
The new president, Mambe Beugre, said at the inauguration
ceremony that his commission would seek consensus and resolve
political differences among rival parties to ensure the coming
presidential polls to be held in a "fair, transparent and open"
atmosphere.
Under an agreement inked by President Laurent Gbagbo, the
independent electoral commission and signatory parties to the
country's peace deal, Beugre would be the sole eligible person to
announce who the new president will be.
Beugre was elected president of the electoral commission last
October. But Gbagbo's supporters, who argued with opposition
members over the qualification of voters for the presidential
polls, refused to accept Beugre as the commission president and
decided to quit the electoral body.
UN representative Antonio Monteiro declared in February that the
election for the leadership of the electoral commission was valid.
Following that, leaders of rival factions reached compromise on the
disputes over the electoral body.
Also on Tuesday, the President of the African Development Bank
(ADB), called on all parties in Cote d'Ivoire to end the political
crisis and allow the bank to return to its original base in the
country's economic capital Abidjan.
The ADB's president, Donald Kaberuka, made it very clear that
the bank would move its headquarters from Tunisia to Abidjan as
soon as peace was restored and security conditions were
convincingly improved in Cote d'Ivoire, at a press conference
ending a two-day visit to the country.
Progress had been made in the peace process in the country, but
conditions were not right yet for the bank to make its way back, he
noted.
Kaberuka expressed a willingness to resume loans to the West
African country. However, he said Cote d'Ivoire must pay off the
loans it had owed the ADB since the outbreak of its domestic
crisis.
Kaberuka arrived in Abidjan on Sunday in his first visit to the
country since he took office in September last year. He has met
President Laurent Gbagbo and Prime Minister Charles Konan Banny and
held talks with government officials and business people.
The ADB was established in 1964 under the auspices of the UN
Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) and began operating in
1966.
Cote d'Ivoire, the world's leading cocoa producer, has been
split since fighting broke out in 2002 between Gbagbo's government
and rebels who control the north of the country.
Peace efforts have been characterized by repeated delays,
political squabbling and on-off violence. The presidential polls
due last October also failed to take place as the rebels had pulled
out.
(Xinhua News Agency March 8, 2006)
