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UN / COTE D’IVOIRE
STORY: UN / COTE D'IVOIRE
TRT: 2.36
SOURCE: UNTV/ ONUCI
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH/ NATS
DATELINE: 7 DECEMBER 2010, NEW YORK CITY/ FILE
FILE – RECENT, NEW YORK CITY
1. Wide shot, exterior UN building
7 DECEMBER 2010, NEW YORK CITY
2. Wide shot, Security Council
3. Med shot, delegates
4. SOUNDBITE (English) Choi Young-Jin, Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Côte d’Ivoire:
“For the first time in history, Côte d’Ivoire held a second round of presidential elections on 28 November. Despite the tense environment that preceded it and despite some incidents which were sometimes violent in the West and the North of the country, the second round was generally conducted in a democratic manner. The participation rate was actually quite high, attaining over 81 percent.”
5. Med shot, delegates
6. SOUNDBITE (English) Choi Young-Jin, Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Côte d’Ivoire:
“The results I obtained through my certification methods was very clear. There was only one winner, with a clear margin. Even if all the complaints submitted by President Gbagbo’s camp to the Constitutional Council would be taken into account in terms of numbers of teller sheets and consequently of votes, the outcome of the second round would not change, with Mr. Alassane Ouattara being the winner of the presidential election.”
7. Med shot, delegates
8. SOUNDBITE (English) Choi Young-Jin, Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Côte d’Ivoire:
“Considering the distance Côte d’Ivoire has travelled, ignoring the will of the people at this stage would be a letdown of the people of Côte d’Ivoire and a waste of significant resources invested over the past eight years by the international community.”
9. Med shot, delegates
10. SOUNDBITE (English) Susan Rice, Permanent Representative of the United States to the United Nations:
“The participation of the Representative of Côte d’Ivoire in this meeting without objection is not intended to be viewed and should not be understood as an acknowledgement of the legitimacy of his Government.”
11. Med shot, representative of Côte d’Ivoire
12. Zoom out, Security Council
ONUCI - 28 NOVEMBER 2010, ABIDJAN, CÔTE D’IVOIRE
13. Med shot, Laurent Gbagbo voting
14. Wide shot, Alassane Ouattara arrives at polling station
15. Med shot, Alassane Ouattara voting
1 DECEMBER 2010, ABIDJAN, COTE D’IVOIRE
16. Med shot, President Gbagbo’s representative taking election result papers from the table and destroying them
17. Med shot, Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) Deputy President interrupting briefing by IEC member
The United Nations today (7 December) intensified its diplomatic moves over Côte d’Ivoire, where outgoing President Laurent Gbagbo insists he won last month’s elections despite UN certification of his rival Alassane Ouattara as the clear victor.
The Security Council heard a briefing by Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon’s Special Representative Y. J. Choi via video conference from the Nigerian capital of Abuja, where he also briefed an extraordinary summit of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) on the elections.
Choi told the Council that the 28 November vote “despite the tense environment that preceded it” had been “generally conducted in a democratic manner” with a high level of participation.
The Special Representative emphasized that the results obtained through UN certification methods were “very clear”, indicating that “there was only one winner, with a clear margin”.
He added that “even if all the complaints submitted by President Gbagbo’s camp to the Constitutional Council would be taken into account in terms of numbers of teller sheets and consequently of votes, the outcome of the second round would not change, with Mr. Alassane Ouattara being the winner of the presidential election.”
Choi pointed out to the Council that “considering the distance Côte d’Ivoire has travelled, ignoring the will of the people at this stage would be a letdown of the people of Côte d’Ivoire and a waste of significant resources invested over the past eight years by the international community.”
US Ambassador Susan Rice, in her capacity as president of the Security Council for the month of December noted that the participation of the Representative of Côte d’Ivoire in today’s meeting “is not intended to be viewed and should not be understood as an acknowledgement of the legitimacy of his Government.”
Choi’s certification of Ouattara last Friday as the newly-elected president followed the declaration of his victory by Côte d’Ivoire’s Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) in the 28 November run-off vote, giving Mr. Ouattara 54.1 per cent of the vote to 45.9 per cent for Gbagbo.
But the head of the country’s Constitutional Council declared the IEC announcement null and void, citing irregularities in Ouattara’s northern base where it cancelled returns from four regions, and it proclaimed Gbagbo the winner.
The Secretary General, who endorsed Choi’s certification, has been in close contact with African leaders, including President Blaise Compaoré of Burkina Faso, who has played a leading role in efforts to bring stability to Côte d’Ivoire’s, Nigeria’s President Goodluck Jonathan, current ECOWAS chairman, and President Bingu wa Mutharika of Malawi, African Union (AU) chairman.
The West African country, the world’s largest cocoa exporter, was split by civil war in 2002 into a Government-controlled south and a rebel-held north. UNOCI, with a current strength of over 9,000 uniformed personnel, has been supporting reunification efforts, of which November’s vote, already delayed five years, was a principal step.
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