African Union Confirms Alassane Ouattara As Ivory Coast’s Leader

admin | March 11, 2011 | 0 Comments

The African Union has confirmed Alassane Ouattara as Ivory Coast’s overall winner of the November presidential run-off elections, after more than a month of investigations and consultations, the South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) reported Friday.

The embattled former President Laurent Gbagbo, however, has challenged the outcome of the second round of the presidential poll, plunging the country into a crisis.

But in a dispatch from Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, the SABC reports that the AU has now accepted the recommendation of its panel of five heads of state to recognize Alassane Dramane Ouattara as the legitimate president of Ivory Coast.

The AU’s Peace and Security Commissioner Ramtane Lamamra said that the constitutional council should now swear-in Ouattara, according to the report monitored here.

The decision to declare Ouattara president-elect was taken after the panel found some discrepancies in a decision of the Constitutional Council to declare Gbagbo the winner.

A high representative will be appointed to oversee the implementation of the overall political solution. The special representative is expected to, within two weeks, start negotiating with all the parties, the SABC reports.

The representative must also address all the concerns raised by outgoing President Gbagbo who had been in power for two five-year terms.

However, while this decision is binding on all parties, Gbagbo’s camp was vehemently opposed to it, the SABC said.

Meanwhile, at the same meeting of the PSC, the AU has also appointed a High Level Panel of five heads of state to go on a fact-finding mission to Libya. It has dismissed the notion of foreign military intervention in the Libyan conflict and has called for the immediate cessation of hostilities and a truce.

Source African Press Agency

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