Ivory Coast President Laurent Gbagbo remained in office on Monday a day after his five-year term had ended, but rebels who occupy half of the country refuse to recognize him and have named their own prime minister.
Although a political impasse persisted in the world’s No. 1 cocoa grower, threats by hard-line opponents to launch massive street protests to topple Gbagbo by force after midnight on Sunday failed to materialize.
Gbagbo, who has ruled the former French colony since winning disputed polls in 2000, told the nation in a televised broadcast late on Sunday that he would remain as head of state to guarantee political continuity until elections could be held.
He said the Ivorian constitution allowed him to do this, but he also has the backing of a recent U.N. Security Council resolution which foresees him staying in office for 12 more months with a strong new prime minister to organize the polls.
“I thank the U.N. Security Council and the great powers of this world,” Gbagbo said.
Calm remains
The main commercial city Abidjan was calm. The cocoa-exporting port is located in the government-controlled south of Ivory Coast, while rebels hold the north following a 2002 civil war that split the country in two.
Shops, businesses and markets opened, traffic flowed over the city’s wide boulevards and bridges spanning the muddy Ebrie Lagoon, and soldiers and police manned routine roadblocks.
“Everything is normal. People are going to their jobs, those who have them,” said Aly Kamagate, a 29-year-old driver in Abidjan’s Treichville suburb, where government forces on Sunday halted an opposition march by firing into the air.
In a defiant but largely symbolic response to Gbagbo staying in office, the New Forces rebels who oppose him said his rule had ended. They named their own leader, Guillaume Soro, as prime minister and said he would form a new “government of national reconciliation."
“Mr Laurent Gbagbo’s presidential mandate is well and truly over,” the rebel statement said.
Gbagbo said he hoped elections could be held “well before” the 12 months were up but called on the rebels to disarm first and agree to unify the country. He said a new prime minister would be appointed “in a few days."
Neutral Prime Minister needed
Analysts said the fact the politically charged Oct. 30 date had passed without major unrest was positive, but a definitive end to Ivory Coast’s crisis was still a long way off.
“The New Forces know it’s very difficult to have Guillaume Soro as prime minister with Gbagbo as president,” said Gilles Yabi, an analyst with the International Crisis Group think-tank.
“We are very far from a long-term solution ... All will depend on the nomination of the prime minister and the definition of his powers,” he told Reuters.
Yabi said the new prime minister to be named by Gbagbo in consultation with international mediators and moderate opponents would have to deal with crucial security and electoral issues to make the holding of free and fair polls possible.
Tired of conflict
On the streets of Abidjan, many locals said they were fed up with the unending political conflict.
The 2002 civil war and sporadic violence since then have led to the exodus of thousands of foreigners, mostly French, from what was once one of West Africa’s most prosperous nations. Businesses have closed and thousands of jobs have been lost.
“We’re tired of all this. The only solution is peace,” said Aicha Bakayogo as she sold bread from a market stall.
Nigerian President and African Union chairman Olusegun Obasanjo was expected in Ivory Coast this week to try to advance the U.N. peace plan, according to U.N. sources.
