Ivory Coast's opposition parties vow that protests in which at least seven have been killed by security forces would continue until President Laurent Gbagbo reinstated the electoral commission.
Ivory Coast's opposition parties vowed on Tuesday (February 23) that protests in which at least seven have been killed by security forces would continue until President Laurent Gbagbo reinstated the electoral commission.
Demonstrations erupted in the world's biggest cocoa producer after Gbagbo dis Read more

Ivory Coast's opposition parties vow that protests in which at least seven have been killed by security forces would continue until President Laurent Gbagbo reinstated the electoral commission.
Ivory Coast's opposition parties vowed on Tuesday (February 23) that protests in which at least seven have been killed by security forces would continue until President Laurent Gbagbo reinstated the electoral commission.
Demonstrations erupted in the world's biggest cocoa producer after Gbagbo dissolved the government and electoral commission on Feb. 12 in a row over the voter register, again delaying a poll due in March but already four and a half years late.
"The discussions continue with the Prime Minister as we wait to see the effective establishment of the Independent Electoral Commission. The opposition maintain their call for mobilisation and demonstrations until we see concrete facts on the establishment of the Independent Electoral Commission and the beginning of its work," Alphonse Djedje Mady, spokesman of the main opposition coalition, told a news conference.
But Mady also softened the opposition's position by saying that they would accept a new president and four new vice presidents at the CEI so long as the rest of the body remained intact.
The compromise was worked out on Monday (February 22) in talks mediated by Burkina Faso President Blaise Compaore, he said.
Public anger is mounting over years of delays to the election timetable and the situation has escalated in recent days after security forces fired on protesters on Friday, killing at least five, and on Monday, killing two.
In Daloa, a cocoa-producing center, protesters burned tyres on Monday and hurled stones at security forces who then fired on them, witnesses said. A sergeant told Reuters two people were killed and 15 wounded in the shooting.
The hospital was swamped with people wounded by rocks and stray bullets. But most of the 15 people injured had been released by Tuesday (February 23)
"We are still treating three people here and from these three people one is still in surgery, my colleague is operating on him," said Doctor Marcelin Kouame who was on duty when the injured were brought in.
A nurse at the hospital said the country risked falling into chaos if the violence wasn't stopped.
"If we don't have a government which can help the country move forward, I think we risk to fall into chaos. What we saw yesterday and the day before yesterday is not good, it is worrying me. We should have a government so that all this (violence) stops," Arnaud Germain Koiblin, a nurse from Daloa said.
"We are in limbo, not knowing in what direction we're going. So everything affecting the Ivorians, affects us too. If there is no peace we don't know what to do, that's why we want the peace to come back. Wether it's a new government, or another solution, I don't mind, what's important is that the peace comes back," said Lamidi Aramu, a Nigerian hair stylist living and working in Daloa.
There were no reports of big demonstrations on Tuesday and the commercial capital Abidjan was largely quiet.
Gbagbo dissolved the electoral commission after accusing its chief Robert Mambe of illegally adding names to the electoral register to boost the opposition vote.
Ivorian Prime Minister Guillaume Soro, a rebel before he became prime minister under a 2007 peace accord, said he would be ready to announce a new government on Tuesday, but gave no time.
Mady said he expected the commission could be reinstated as early as Thursday, when all the parties were supposed to elect a new CEI president, which meant elections could be held by May.
Cocoa output has remained largely unaffected by the unrest.
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