Allasane Ouattara- opposition party candidate, won the election Laurent Gbagbo- incumbent, lost the election
Gbagbo claims that other nations are tampering in Cote d'Ivoire's politics and refuse to recognize its sovereignty and the validity of its governmental institutions.
The problem with this argument is that the leaders of Cote d'Ivoire signed a peace accord which allowed the United Nations to monitor and certify the presidential elections. Ouattara was named the winner of the presidential election (winning 54% of votes) by the U.N. electoral commission. So, the United States supports its decision and is backing Ouattara as the rightfully elected president. Most of the international community has voiced their support of Ouattara as well.
In order for Gbagbo to "win", his political party threw out votes from several areas of the country (due to "voting irregularities"). They then had this result ratified by a constitutional committee (of which the majority of members were appointed by Gbagbo). The UN electoral committee maintains that, while there were some voting irregularities, these problems were reported by unbiased election monitors as being present in many areas of the country and not in just the areas discounted by Gbagbo's party. Thus, the choice to throw out those particular votes is not supportable, especially since the areas which his party is contesting are Ouattara strongholds and throwing out the votes "conveniently" gave Gbagbo a slim majority.
For those who are interested in a more detailed account of how Cote d'Ivoire got into this mess, please read the following article about Ivoirian political history: http://news.myjoyonline.com/features/201101/59140.asp
Gbagbo claims that other nations are tampering in Cote d'Ivoire's politics and refuse to recognize its sovereignty and the validity of its governmental institutions.
The problem with this argument is that the leaders of Cote d'Ivoire signed a peace accord which allowed the United Nations to monitor and certify the presidential elections. Ouattara was named the winner of the presidential election (winning 54% of votes) by the U.N. electoral commission. So, the United States supports its decision and is backing Ouattara as the rightfully elected president. Most of the international community has voiced their support of Ouattara as well.
In order for Gbagbo to "win", his political party threw out votes from several areas of the country (due to "voting irregularities"). They then had this result ratified by a constitutional committee (of which the majority of members were appointed by Gbagbo). The UN electoral committee maintains that, while there were some voting irregularities, these problems were reported by unbiased election monitors as being present in many areas of the country and not in just the areas discounted by Gbagbo's party. Thus, the choice to throw out those particular votes is not supportable, especially since the areas which his party is contesting are Ouattara strongholds and throwing out the votes "conveniently" gave Gbagbo a slim majority.
For those who are interested in a more detailed account of how Cote d'Ivoire got into this mess, please read the following article about Ivoirian political history: http://news.myjoyonline.com/features/201101/59140.asp
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