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TIMELINE-Ivory Coast's long road to elections
05 Nov 2009 13:05:10 GMT
Source: Reuters
Nov 5 (Reuters) - A row over voter eligibility could further delay Ivory Coast's election by several months and may deepen a political crisis by playing into the hands of hardliners on all sides, analysts and diplomats warned. [ID:nL5447032] Here is a timeline since the civil war:

Sept. 19, 2002 - Dissident soldiers attack main city of Abidjan to try to overthrow President Laurent Gbagbo. Attempt fails but rebels seize north of country.

Jan. 25, 2003 - Seydou Diarra is appointed a consensus prime minister under a peace deal signed in France, after Gbagbo agrees to share power with rebels and political rivals.

May 3 - Rebels and army sign total ceasefire bringing an end to months of fighting in western regions. French and West African troops secure ceasefire line on May 24.

July 4 - Army and rebels declare war is over, with country split between rebel-held north and government-controlled south.

March 27, 2004 - Rebels and opposition RDR party pull out of government after crackdown on banned anti-Gbagbo march in which subsequent U.N. report says at least 120 people are killed.

July 30 - Warring parties sign a deal after talks in Ghana, setting out a timetable for reform and rebel disarmament.

April 6, 2005 - Rebels and Gbagbo finally agree at peace talks in Pretoria to end the war.

Oct. 30 - Scheduled presidential polls are postponed. A U.N. resolution allows Gbagbo to remain in power another year, while a new prime minister is appointed.

Dec. 4 - Charles Konan Banny, governor of West Africa's central bank, is appointed interim prime minister, after premier Diarra resigned.

Jan. 15, 2006 - Foreign mediators recommend parliament should not be reconvened. Gbagbo's supporters say the group has no right to make such a recommendation. Gbagbo supporters stage anti-U.N. protests in which 11 people are killed.

Nov. 1 - U.N. Security Council votes unanimously to shift power from the president to the prime minister. It extends transitional government for a second year, until Oct. 31, 2007.

March 4, 2007 - Gbagbo and Soro sign a peace deal brokered by Burkina Faso's president, Blaise Campaore.

March 26 - The government and rebels agree on Soro as prime minister under a plan to reunite the country. Gbagbo names a new government led by Soro on April 7.

April 16 - U.N. and French peacekeepers begin a staged pullback from the military buffer zone.

July 30 - Gbagbo arrives in the rebel headquarters at Bouake for the first time since the war. He meets Soro for a "Flame of Peace" ceremony to symbolically burn weapons.

April 14, 2008 - Ivory Coast announces presidential elections for Nov. 30 under the peace plan.

Oct. 17 - The long-awaited presidential election, is "technically impossible" this year and will be held in 2009, officials say.

May 14, 2009 - Ivory Coast will hold a long-delayed presidential election on Nov. 29, Prime Minister Soro announces.

May 26 - Rebels controlling the north since 2002 officially hand over to civilian administrators, in a step aimed at restoring government authority across the whole country.

Aug. 6 - Gbagbo says there are no longer any political obstacles to holding the presidential election on Nov. 29.

Oct. 16 - Election officials say that a provisional voter list will not be ready for another month, making a Nov. 29 poll all but impossible. Electronic lists were handed over to the election commission on Oct. 1.

Oct. 29 - The U.N. unanimously renews sanctions and diamond trade ban until Oct. 31, 2010.

(For latest story please click on [ID:nL5447032])

(For full Reuters Africa coverage and to have your say on the top issues, visit: http://africa.reuters.com/)

(Writing by David Cutler, London Editorial Reference Unit; Editing by Michael Roddy)


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