20101102
africanews

Tension was high on Monday in Ivory Coast as about 20 million Ivorians awaited provisional results from Sunday's presidential election judged by observers as peaceful, free and fair. The elections commission (CEI) constitutionally has a maximum of three days to announce the complete results.

But its officials had promised to diffuse partial results as they trickled down from some 22,000 voting centres across the West African nation and in the Diaspora.

However, only results from Europe, North America and some African countries were released by the CEI on state TV RTI on Monday, with former Prime Minister Alassane Ouattara leading with 50.55%, followed by incumbent President Laurent Gbagbo 33.53% and former President Henri Konan Bédié 12.27%.

But the scores constitute less than 1% of the electorate, which make them insignificant at the moment.

Rumours

Rumours were flying from one end of town to another in Abidjan by Monday evening. Supporters and sympathisers were sharing their scoops about results they had stealthily received from their party headquarters, prompting the CEI chairman Youssouf Bakayoko to intervene on TV saying nobody had any definite results, and called on rumourmongers to desist from their acts.

Some Ivorians were also sharing their partial results on Facebook, Yahoo chat and Twitter, but most gave their preferred candidate a lead, which clearly throws doubt on the authenticity of the parallel results.

There have also been rumours of armour tanks positioned at strategic places in the economic capital Abidjan. However, AfricaNews special correspondent for Ivory Coast presidential election Kingsley Kobo did not spot any tank while touring the city. But a heavy presence of security forces was visible.

Graveyard country

Abidjan and other cities and towns across Ivory Coast were absolutely quiet on Monday, with little or no economic activities taking place. Most people remained indoors glued to their TV screen waiting for election results.

Taxis and buses were not in sight as usual but some personal cars drove around by midmorning but the streets became dry by early evening.

Although Monday was a public Toussaint holiday, a number of Catholic churches had very scanty attendance.

The CEI promised to release more results on Tuesday, with final provisional results to be out on Wednesday.

The CEI put latest turnout figures at 85%.