Abidjan, 29 October 2009 - The Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General for Côte d'Ivoire, Y.J. Choi, "reaffirms his confidence in the political wisdom of Ivorian actors to find a solution to the problem of the persons who registered as voters but have not yet been found on other administrative registers", the Spokesman of the United Nations Operation in Côte d'Ivoire (UNOCI), Hamadoun Touré announced on Thursday in Abidjan.
Speaking during UNOCI's weekly press conference, the spokesman said that Mr. Choi had been encouraged in this regard by a series of consultations which he had with the protagonists of Ouagadougou Political Agreement that ended on Tuesday with. These meetings, he explained, were aimed at looking for "ways to consolidate the electoral dynamics and find an answer to the posting of the provisional electoral list as soon as possible".
Mr. Choi who ended his consultations with discussions with the Prime Minister, previously met with Ivorian President, Laurent Gbagbo and the Facilitator of the inter- Ivorian Dialogue, President Blaise Compaoré of Burkina Faso. The head of UNOCI, also met successively with the leaders of the Democratic Party of Côte d'Ivoire (PDCI) and the Rally of Republicans (RDR) party, Henri Konan Bédié and Alassane Dramane Ouattara and a delegation of the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC), led by its chairman, Robert Beugré Mambé.
According to the spokesman, the Chief of UNOCI drew the attention of his interlocutors to the last two remaining challenges to be taken up, namely the publication of the provisional electoral list and the definitive list which will be published after the dispute phase. "To all his interlocutors, Mr. Choi pointed out that after having successfully organised the mobile courts hearings and identification, it was necessary to consolidate the current electoral dynamics which would bring the presidential election closer", Mr. Touré explained.
Responding to journalists' concerns, Mr. Touré confirmed that UNOCI had received a copy of the electronic version of the provisional voters' list but did not wish to comment on this issue. "UNOCI, he said, prefers to wait until the end of the political consultations but also of the current technical work before giving its opinion. This means that we do not have any comments to make at this stage". He recalled that the hope of the UN Mission was that the maximum numbers of persons are confirmed in order to allow the provisional electoral list to be posted as quickly as possible.
