Press release –
United States for "fair and peaceful" election

Le Patriote –

The United States supports Ivorians' desire to resume democracy
and shares their strong desire to hold elections to resolve the political
impasse in order to achieve lasting unity. We therefore congratulate the efforts
of the political parties, the Ivorian government and the international community
for the effective holding of the presidential elections scheduled on 31 October
2010. We invited you here today to help us transmit our strong hope to all the
leaders of the political parties in Côte d'Ivoire so that they can become
involved in a credible, transparent, fair and peaceful electoral process. The
United States is confident that the resolution of the ten-year Ivorian crisis
requires credible elections. The elections are also a prerequisite to the
political reconciliation, the creation of conditions for good governance and
economic development.
(...)

Distribution of
ID cards: ONI's officers are extorting money from people in Duekoué

Le Nouveau
Réveil  –
The officers of the National Office of Identification (ONI) in the
Sub-prefecture of Guehebi, Guehezon and Babohoua are extorting money (3000 Fcfa)
from the population to give their voter cards. The distribution has been stopped
since Saturday because these officers refuse to hand over the cards without
money.

The posters have
already been torn

L'Intelligent
d'Abidjan–
The posters have no chance of lasting on the walls. As soon as they are posted
on walls, they are torn down.
(...)

Presidential
election: Mgr Paul Ahouanan is worried about lack of security and mistakes on
voter and ID cards

Fraternité Matin
 –
The metropolitan archbishop of the archdiocese in Bouaké, Mgr Paul Simeon
Ahouanan Djro, on Sunday hosted a press conference on the holding of the first
round of the presidential election at the archbishop's palace. In this regard,
the religious leader said he had two concerns: the mistakes on some voter and ID
cards and security problems. He said he wanted to know how the institutions
involved in the electoral process will be able to resolve these issues before 31
October. "I saw a couple of cases. For instance, I have a relative whose photo
is on her card but it is her husband's name that is mentioned and there are a
lot of these kinds of mistakes", said Mgr Ahouanan. He then wondered if all the
people who are in this situation will be allowed to vote or not. On the
contrary, which alternative do they have? The second concern of the metropolitan
archbishop in Bouaké is related to security because according to him, two weeks
before the holding of the first tour of the presidential election, arms are
still circulating throughout the country. This is why he asked the concerned
institutions whose mission is to provide security for elections, to ensure their
peaceful holding to prevent all vandalism, plunder, destruction of public and
private properties and marches. Mgr Ahouanan therefore warned that if security
is not guaranteed, it could impact on the election because voters could be
scared to vote.

During the
electoral campaign, Saturday, a candidate was victim of an attack

Soir Info -

Eno Aka N'Douba,
an independent candidate was victim of an attack on Saturday, October 16, 2010
while campaigning for the presidential election. According to Mr. N'Douba the
events occurred shortly after 10 pm. at Riviera II. "A taxi came to bang the
back of my car near the small night market of Riviera II," he said (...) the
shock was so violent that the bumper fell down. The candidate denounced what he
said was a deliberate act by his aggressors. According to him when his driver
got out of the car to pick up the bumper he was attacked by some young people
who presented themselves as unionists. "I get out of the vehicle myself to
introduce myself to these kids. When I told them that I was a candidate for the
presidential election, they said "who gives a dam". (...) while he was about to
leave, other young men came and prevented him from doing so. "They told me that
they were from FESCI (the student union) and that I was on their territory (...)
they let me go only after long minutes of talk and after giving them money.
(...)"

Hamed Bakayoko
threatened

Le Patriote  –
After his wonderful
performance in Yopougon last Friday,
the campaign director (DDC) of presidential candidate Alassane Ouattara in
charge of the youth, is still disturbing the Refoundation. Unable to give him
the reply through democratic arguments the FPI had decided to intimidate the
Minister Hamed Bakayoko. Once he finished spitting out his truths before a huge
crowd at Ficgayo, a military truck packed with CECOS was sent to his residence.
They certainly wanted to intimidate or scare him. Since then a detachment of
UNOCI has been deployed outside the residence of DDC.