After the Ivorian presidential election which took place on 25 October 2015, the Special Representative of the United Nations Secretary-General for Côte d'Ivoire gave an interview to United Nations Radio in New York.





UN Radio : What are your impressions, the impressions of the Mission, after the first round of the election yesterday (Editor's Note: Sunday 25 October)





Aïchatou Mindaoudou : During the voting process and uptil today, even after the voting process, no security incident was reported. I would like to congratulate the Ivorian people because once again, they have put the general interest and the respect for democratic principles above all else. Voting took place in a calm and serene environment. And even before polling day, during two weeks, the electoral campaign was conducted with calm and serenity.





UN Radio : Can you explain what sort of and what level of logistic support UNOCI provided ?





Aïchatou Mindaoudou : We transported all the electoral material to 108 departments in Côte d'Ivoire for the IEC (Editor's Note : Independent Electoral Commission) and from today, we are helping to bring back all the voting material, including tally sheets, to Abidjan, in an effort to assist the IEC. This is the kind of logistic support we are providing.



With regard to security, some 6000 blue berets participated in the implementation of the security plan which was drawn up by the Police, Gendarmerie and the Republican Forces of Côte d'Ivoire, in collaboration with our peacekeepers for security provisions for the elections. This security arrangement will be in place until around 2 November 2015. So that is the kind of assistance we provided.



UN Radio : When do you think the second round of the election will take place?





Aïchatou Mindaoudou : In fact, you know, everything depends on the results that we are expecting between today and tomorrow. If during the first round, one of the candidates wins with an absolute majority, then there will not be a second round. If this is not the case, the second round will be organised in two weeks.





UN Radio : Apart from logistics support, are you also assisting the IEC in counting the results ?





Aïchatou Mindaoudou : No. This year, contrary to what happened in 2010, UNOCI (Editor's Note : United Nations Operation in Côte d'Ivoire) is not involved in the voting process. For example, we did not have any blue beret, whether civilian or military, in the polling stations. So we are not involved in counting the results.



However there is another important aspect of our assitance which is information and sensitisation. We helped the IEC by providing information on the different stages of the electoral process through our radio ONUCI FM, as part of these elections. In implementing our protection of civilian mandate, I, personnally travelled throughout Côte d'Ivoire to meet people, members of local government and administrative authorities, traditional and community chiefs, civil society, elected officials, local dignitaries, women, youths, representatives of political parties – all of this with the aim of creating a favourable environment for the presidential election as we are mandated to do by the Resolution (Editor's Note: Security Council Resolution 2226). For almost two years, all of the Mission's sections were implicated in this work which succeeded in creating a peaceful climate for the holding of elections.