{"id":274526,"date":"2011-01-20T22:48:06","date_gmt":"2011-01-20T22:48:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.ghanamma.net\/?p=48648"},"modified":"2011-01-20T22:48:06","modified_gmt":"2011-01-20T22:48:06","slug":"gbagbo-will-do-everything-to-stay-in-power-ouattaras-aide","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/01\/20\/gbagbo-will-do-everything-to-stay-in-power-ouattaras-aide\/","title":{"rendered":"Gbagbo Will Do Everything To Stay In Power \u2013 Ouattara\u2019s Aide"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Patrick Achi, Spokesperson for the  Government of Alassane Ouattara, believes if feedback from the African  Union Mission led by Raila Odinga is anything to go by, then it is fair  to say that the country\u2019s beleaguered President, Laurent Gbagbo intends  using his incumbency as well as every available means to strengthen his  hold over the presidency, and might not step down willingly.<br \/>\nSpeaking in an exclusive interview with Kwami Sefa Kayi on <strong>Peace FM\u2019s Kokrokoo<\/strong> Morning show, Mr. Achi alleged that the Constitutional Council  pronounced Laurent Gbagbo winner of the polls and President of Cote  D\u2019Ivoire because the council is made up of his close allies.<br \/>\nMr Achi, who doubles as the Minister for Economic Infrastructure, believes Mr. Gbagbo does not want to leave office.<br \/>\n\u201cIt  seems that former President Gbagbo who lost the elections doesn\u2019t want  to step down\u2026A lot of Missions, negotiation missions\u2019 officials came  here\u2026from ECOWAS, the last one from the African Union (led by Raila  Odinga), who has been trying\u2026to give what was (contained) in the  statement of the Heads of State of ECOWAS, \u2018Please Former President  Gbagbo, you\u2019ve lost the elections, step down peacefully.\u2019 But from what  the last Mission of Prime Minister Odinga, he\u2019s showed us, former  President Gbagbo doesn\u2019t wanna leave office, he doesn\u2019t want to step  down,\u201d he noted.<br \/>\nPrior to the elections, he said, there was a lot  of tension because both candidates (Gbagbo and Ouattara) did not trust  each other. According to him, whiles the opposition feared that the  country\u2019s Constitutional Council were puppeteers in the hands of Laurent  Gbagbo, the embattled president did not have faith in the country\u2019s  Electoral Commission, because they comprised of too many opposition  figures.<br \/>\n\u201c\u2026Everything should have been done to avoid the results  been contested and that was what was done. In the electoral process,  the candidates didn\u2019t trust each other. Ouattara and Conan Bedie did not  trust Gbagbo and were afraid that he will use the Constitutional  Council where only his parents and his brothers and family members he  put there, to just say that he had won even if he had lost. Gbagbo (on  the other hand) was afraid that the Independent Electoral Commission  where he thought there were too much opposition party members will also  not tell the truth,\u201d he explained.<br \/>\nHe described Mr. Gbagbo\u2019s  complaints of interference by the United Nations as ridiculous since  both candidates had agreed to an arbitrator from the UN before the  elections.<br \/>\n\u201cThey both went to Pretoria on a negotiation process,  with President Mbeki and they all decided that they wanted UN to  organize the election and at that period, our brother Kofi Annan was the  UN Secretary General. He (Kofi Annan) however, said Gentlemen, we the  UN, cannot organize an election for a country where there are  institutions so what they could do is to appoint a special  representative who will monitor the whole process so that if there are  any irregularities, he can play the role of arbitration\u2026its written in  the Resolution 1765,\u201d he stressed.<br \/>\n\u201cThe person appointed by Kofi  Annan certified\u2026the voting list and we all agreed on that. Then we moved  on to the first round and after the first round\u2026we went for the second  round and because Gbagbo has lost, he started crying foul that the UN is  interfering in internal affairs,\u201d he added.<br \/>\nWhiles admitting that there were some  complaints of electoral irregularities, Mr. Patrick Achi posited that  it will be inappropriate and grossly unfair for the Constitutional  Council to cancel almost 600,000 votes areas which happens to be  Ouattara&#8217;s stronghold just to declare \u2018friend\u2019 Gbagbo the president,  adding that it will be like \u2018stealing the election for one person.\u2019<br \/>\nHe  proffered that, it will be better if the elections in Cote D\u2019Ivoire are  re-run than out-rightly cancelled just to curry favour with Gbagbo.<br \/>\n\u201cThe  role of the Constitutional Council is not to go and cancel all votes in  all regions because there were irregularities. You look at the locality  where the irregularities (occurred or the voting booths were taken away  and just cancelled them if you want to. But the law does not give power  to the President or the Constitutional council to cancel about 500,000  votes out of 7 regions of the country where you have 19 regions\u2026If you  have to do so, then you just cancel the whole election and we call for  another election. But this is not in his power, according to the law to  cancel 500,000 to 600000 votes and just proclaim that Gbagbo has won,  this is stealing election. Infact, the law doesn\u2019t say that!&#8230;If we  keep going on like that, we will never have democracy in Africa,\u201d he  stated.<br \/>\n\u201cTake for instance in Ghana, when you had your last  election, the difference between Atta Mills and the other candidate was  40,000 votes. Now, if the President of the Constitution Council goes to  Atta Mills\u2019 region and says that in one or two states (constituencies)  because there were complaints over there, he\u2019s cancelling all the votes;  100,000 votes and says that Atta Mills has lost, would you accept that?  But here, because the Army, partly was backing Gbagbo, because he has  the state media, we are here in the Golf Hotel surrounded by his Army  and he says that he has won, talking everyday on TV and having the army  killing people\u2026No one can accept that!\u201d he fumed.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Patrick Achi, Spokesperson for the Government of Alassane Ouattara, believes if feedback from the African Union Mission led by Raila Odinga is anything to go by, then it is fair to say that the country\u2019s beleaguered President, Laurent Gbagbo intends using his incumbency as well as every available means to strengthen his hold over the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-274526","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.0 - 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