ABIDJAN, Nov. 19 (Xinhua) -- Despite the postponement of the Nov. 29 presidential elections, Cote d'Ivoire's candidates have never stopped efforts to "fish for votes," local analysts say.

The pre-campaign mood has been building on across the war-divided West African country for some months and has been going on as a seduction operation to capture the youth since, in Cote d'Ivoire, they will constitute 30 percent of the electorate in the coming elections.

In the past, the minimum age for voting was 21, but the new electoral code allows citizens to vote as young as 18 years old. Because the youth constitutes a big number, each leader wants to benefit from them.

The head of state, Laurent Gbagbo, the candidate for the ruling Ivorian Popular Front (FPI), has never failed to take pride in the fact that he is ever close to them, reminding them of how they were mobilized to save his government which had been threatened in 2002.

Gbagbo, who met with the Ivorian youth on Nov. 1 in Yopougon, an Abidjan suburb known for being an FPI stronghold, made five commitments to them, including equality of opportunities for children in Cote d'Ivoire, profound reforms in the education sector and employment.

"I share with you the determination to build a prosperous and brotherly country where the youth are going to be actors in the new world," said the head of state whose national youth campaign was entrusted to Charles Ble Goude.

The candidate for the opposition Democratic Party of Cote d'lvoire (PDCI), Henri Konan Bedie, does not miss an opportunity to communicate with the youth. Bedie has met the youth several times in the Abidjan stadium. In each of these meetings, he adopted a linguistic style of the youth by sometimes speaking "nouchi," the popular street language in the country.

After having noted the difficulties that the youth are faced with especially unemployment, for which he blamed the party in power, Bedie indicated that he had the solutions, for example, the creation of the youth micro-projects, rehabilitation of libraries and the creation of a fund for the education of students from humble backgrounds.

Another opposition leader, the candidate for Republicans Assembly (RDR), Alassane Ouattara, also proposes solutions for the Ivorian youth.

Ouattara, who has also organized several tours across the country, said he worked for three years (1990 to 1993) for the youth when he was the prime minister under the late president Felix Houphouet Boigny. He promised to give hope to the youth through projects in various fields, among them education and integration of the youth into the world of work, making them to believe not only in themselves, but also in their country.

The former director general for Ivorian Customs, Gnamien Konan, a candidate for the Union of Cote d'Ivoire (UPCI), wished to woo the youth during a meeting he had with them at Yopougon (Abidjan) on Aug. 1.

According to him, his ascendancy to power will institutionalize meritocracy where there will be zero tolerance for corruption and favoritism, but everything will be done in consideration of merit. "Whatever their social class, the youths who will have studied well and passed in their exams and competitions will be absorbed in the administration or companies based on their merit," he claimed.

The Union for Democracy and Peace in Cote d'Ivoire (UDPCI) has also tried to win over the Ivorian youth. The president of this party, which was created by the ex-junta in power during the military transition, the late general Robert Guei who was killed in the early moments of the political conflict, said the Ivorian youth can save themselves and that they live in precariousness, they are attracted to luxury and easy gains and they have been exposed to a lot of cheating.

"We must give our youths a complete change of mindset and resources that can support not only their future, but also the future of the country. Job creation and the promotion of youth entrepreneurial spirit will be our priority strategies," said UDPCI President Albert Mabri Toikeusse.

Like everybody else, the candidate for the Movement of Future Forces (MFA), Innocent Anaky Kobenan, offers to invest a substantial amount of resources in the promotion of the youth who are the future of the country.

As the elections approach, each Ivorian youth is finding himself bombarded with promises for his well being.

Each political leader is hoping to win over the heart of this section of the population whose vote is going to tilt the electoral scale.

Voters in Cote d'Ivoire are impatiently waiting for the presidential election being anticipated an opportunity to end seven years of the political crisis in the country.