I Coast: Manual count for presidential votes

  1. Posted on Friday 22 October 2010 - 09:12
    KingsleyKobo
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    Kingsley Kobo, AfricaNews reporter in Abidjan, Ivory Coast
    The Ivory Coast Independent Electoral Commission (CEI) on Thursday decided that manual counting of votes will be the only option in the presidential election scheduled for October 31, irrevocably dropping the idea of an earlier planned computer counting.
    Ivory Coast: Manual count to be used in presidential vote
    In a communiqué read on state TV RTI by the CEI spokesperson Bamba Yacouba, hand counts would take maximum of three days before the declaration of the final results of the vote.

    The usage of a faster computerized count sparked a row within the CEI when the contract was awarded to SILS – a computer firm some CEI members say is run by a collaborator of President Laurent Gbagbo, who is also running for the polls.

    Rains and campaigns

    The campaigns entered the seventh day on Thursday, leaving the presidential candidates with just nine days to round off their rallies across the 322, 460 km² national territory. Progress has been generally satisfactory but heavy rains are hampering outdoor meetings and rallies, and flooding major routes in the hinterland.

    Gbagbo and two other candidates were shown on television completely wet at open-air rallies outside economic capital Abidjan.

    Gnamien Konan, the candidate of UPCI joked that God was using the rains to cleanse Ivory Coast of corruption, poverty, joblessness and crisis.

    Voter’s card

    The CEI has fixed October 23 as the last day for the withdrawal of ID and voters’ cards in Abidjan, while those outside Abidjan have till October 27 to get their documents, which will give them access to the voting centres.

    Observers say a good number of Ivorians are reluctant to go get their cards because they are still undecided or simply unwilling to vote.

    “I’m not voting. These candidates are kids of the same parents, so why waste my time. I’ll be sleeping that day,” Josephine Konan, a 31-year-old computer scientist told AfricaNews.

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