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UN council urges election progress in Ivory Coast
Real estate news By Claudia Parsons
Tue 23 Oct 2007, 6:10 GMT
U.N. Security Council members urged the government of Ivory Coast on Monday to meet its commitments on registering voters and other preparations for long-delayed elections aimed at bolstering a peace deal. A report by U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said Ivory Coast's peace process would remain vulnerable to reversals unless it was underpinned by concrete progress, especially on disarmament and elections. "I am deeply concerned that the failure to adhere to the timelines set out in the agreement has led to a slackening of momentum which, if it continues, would undermine successful implementation," said the report, presented to the Security Council on Monday.
Ivory Coast has made stuttering progress toward reunification since the March peace accord, signed in Burkina Faso's capital Ouagadougou by President Laurent Gbagbo and rebel leader Guillaume Soro, now his prime minister. The agreement foresees general elections by next year in the world's biggest cocoa exporter. But the timetable has been cast in doubt by delays in registering voters around the country and by lack of progress on disarmament. Security Council president Leslie Kojo Christian, Ghana's ambassador, told reporters after the debate that members of the council "expressed concern about the delays." "Members of the security council urged the parties to meet their commitments fully and in good faith," he said.
Ivory Coast was divided by rival factions into two in a 2002-2003 civil war and U.N. efforts to hold elections to seal a lasting peace and reunification have missed a string of deadlines since 2005. Ivory Coast's Ambassador Alcide Djedje said polls were now scheduled to take place by October 2008. French Minister of State for Cooperation Jean-Marie Bockel, whose portfolio includes responsibility for French-speaking countries, urged the Ivorian government to establish a new timetable for elections to lead the country out of crisis. "There has to be a clear and irreversible prospect for the holding of presidential and legislative elections that are open, free, just and transparent, conforming to international norms," Bockel told the council.
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