Abidjan le 10 août 2008......... The UN Operation in Côte d'Ivoire (UNOCI) handed over a first batch of electoral material to the Ivorian Government on Sunday in Abidjan.

The equipment, comprising 1500 electoral kits, was transported from Brindisi, Italy, by the UN mission with a view to enabling the technical operator, Sagem, to launch identification operations quickly.
Through its support, UNOCI "marks once again its will and determination to join the partners in working for the rapid launch of the identification operations, which are crucial to the preparation and organisation of the elections," the Principal Deputy Special Representative of the Secretary-General, Abou Moussa, said as he handed over the equipment.

Mr Moussa added that UNOCI's support did not end there, but also included contributing to the functionality of the headquarters of the identification and voter registration operation, known as the Forum. He added that the UN mission was optimistic about the remaining logistical challenges, namely the recruiting and training of identification agents, the rehabilitation of the central identification site together with 70 local identification centres and the transport of Sagem's remaining kits.

For Mr Moussa, the holding of the presidential election is increasingly becoming a reality. "Together we can launch identification in the next few days and participate in a significant way in respecting the 30th of November as the election date," he said.

Speaking on behalf of Prime Minister Guillaume Soro, Mr Koffi Koffi Paul thanked UNOCI, stating that its assistance enabled the Ivorian populations to really observe the materialisation of the electoral process. "May this operation sealed with the United Nations reach its conclusion so that we can organised the elections on 30 November as scheduled," he said, calling on the technical operator, Sagem, to set out to work with the support of the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC).

The electoral equipment was then handed over to the Ivorian Government by Mr Moussa in the presence of IEC Chairman Robert Mambé Beugré, and representatives of Sagem, who participated in the ceremony.