October Revolution

When General Robert Gueï and his military took control in Côte d'Ivoire last Christmas, he told the world that he wasn't interested in power but that he was just going to "sweep the house" and return control to an elected civilian government. Many Ivorians were pleased that he had deposed President Henri Konan Bedié. But as the year wore on, Gueï decided that he would like to be the elected president.
    Through the state-run media, many were persuaded to vote for a new constitution with very stringent nationality requirements for the president. A few weeks before the elections the Supreme Court ruled fourteen of the other candidates as ineligible to stand, including all candidates of two major parties. Many Ivorians, particularly the predominantly Muslim northerners felt disenfranchised. Despite international pressure to allow more candidates to stand, the elections went ahead on October 22 with just five candidates.    
    The polling proceeded peacefully despite a boycott called by the one of the excluded parties. By the following morning the electoral commission had announced about 8% of the results. Long-standing socialist opposition leader Laurent Gbagbo was slightly leading General Gueï, when the announcement of results stopped abruptly. Finally at midday on October 24, we heard that General Gueï had disbanded the electoral commission for 'incompetence and fraud', and was saying he had won the election with 52% of the votes cast!