UN Council Pressures Ivory Coast On Elections

The vote in the West African country has been delayed several times since 2005 by political conflict and sporadic violence.

The U.N. Security Council stepped up pressure on Ivory Coast on Friday to stage much-delayed presidential elections, demanding that they be held by the end of next spring.

The vote had been scheduled for Nov. 30, but last month an election official in the world's top cocoa exporter said delays in the identification and registration of voters meant it would not take place until next year.

A statement agreed by all 15 members of the council said excessive delays in the poll "could put at risk the entire Ivorian peace process" since a 2003 cease-fire between the government and New Forces rebels who control the country's north.

The council called for concrete steps to be taken "immediately and as a priority" to complete identification and registration of voters before the end of January.

"It expresses its determination to bring its full support to a credible electoral process in (Ivory Coast), on the understanding that the presidential elections will be organized before the end of spring 2009," it added.

The vote in the West African country has been delayed several times since 2005 by political conflict and sporadic violence.

Last month, an election official told Reuters in Abidjan that delays in the registration of voters, including a strike by census officials working to identify citizens, meant the poll could not be held on Nov. 30.

The election will seal a March 2007 deal signed between President Laurent Gbagbo and northern rebels, who fought a 2002-03 civil war in the West African state, where French and United Nations peacekeepers are backing the election process.

Gbagbo is widely expected to stand for re-election.

The Security Council has also been trying to pressure Ivory Coast through an existing sanctions regime. Last week, it renewed for another year its ban on arms and diamond trade but promised to review the embargo once the election was held.

Friday's statement noted that a meeting would be held on Monday for Ivory Coast's political actors to review problems in the election process and agree a new time frame to resolve them.

It urged the president of the country's Independent Electoral Commission to make the time frame public, including the election date.