Investigators have found evidence of "fraud" in a voters' list being compiled for Ivory Coast's long delayed polls, a judicial source said Friday, as the opposition called for the election to be held in a month. The election has already been delayed six times since 2005, when President Laurent Gbagbo's five-year mandate ran out on security concerns and demands for a fresh electoral list after a failed 2002 coup.
"There has been manifest fraud," a judicial source told AFP, following an investigation ordered last month by Interior Minister Desire Tagro. The source said the election panel had used a compact disc using unauthorised names. The Independent Electoral Commission, or CEI under its French-language acronym, refutes the allegations but has acknowledged major problems in managing voter lists.
Abidjan's prosecutor Raymond Tchimou said the "investigation has been wrapped up and the report handed over to the interior minister, who ordered it, and to President Laurent Gbagbo." "It is up to them to make it public," he added. The announcement came as an opposition bloc called for the elections to be held "at the latest by March."
The historically dominant Democratic Party of Ivory Coast (PDCI) and the Rally of Republicans (RDR) party also said a peace deal aimed at ending a crisis after the abortive coup risked collapse. The 2007 deal "has never been under such a threat due to the delaying tactics of the camp" of Gbagbo, who was elected in 2000, it said.
"The drawing up of the electoral list ... has witnessed a great delay which could create a ... dangerous bottleneck for exiting the (political) crisis," said a joint opposition grouping of the PDCI and RDR. The group said the elections should be held "at the latest" by March.