Ivory Coast vote squabble

President Laurent Gbagbo's party accused the rebels in the north of Ivory Coast yesterday of trying to steal a presidential run-off on behalf of the opposition, and rejected still unpublished results.

As international pressure grew on Ivory Coast to release the results of its disputed presidential poll before yesterday's deadline, Gbagbo's camp complained of rebel-led intimidation and said they would contest a vote that rival Alassane Ouattara's party said has given him a clear win.

Allies of Ouattara, a northerner who denies having anything to do with the 2002-2003 rebellion that split the country, have said Gbagbo is halting publication because he knows he has lost.

"We didn't lose," Pascal Affi N'Guessan, Gbagbo's campaign chief, told journalists.

"We have requested a cancellation of the results in several regions of the north where clearly there was no vote, but on the contrary a masquerade to organise electoral fraud for the benefit of Alassane Ouattara."

He said no poll would be fair while rebels sympathetic to Ouattara ran half the country.

Asked why Gbagbo's camp accepted a poll under those conditions, he said: "You can't ask someone whose house is burgled why they moved into that neighbourhood."

Tensions over a poll aimed at stabilising the world's top cocoa grower turned to farce at a news conference late on Tuesday as pro-Gbagbo members of the election commission tore up results as the body's spokesman tried to read them out.

N'Guessan accused senior commission officials of attempting to publish the results before a consensus was reached, and spoke of intimidation by rebels armed with rocket launchers.

"The victory of Alassane Ouattara is the raison d'etre of the New Forces," he said.

It is not clear what will happen if Gbagbo's camp can't persuade the electoral commission to annul northern votes or if no results were released by the deadline last night, but the constitutional council must approve any final ruling.

Constitutional council president Paul Yao N'Dre is a staunch Gbagbo ally and member of his party. He overruled opposition first-round challenges within three days of provisional results.

UN mission chief YJ Choi has endorsed the vote as broadly democratic despite the violence and some evidence of irregularities at the polls.

The election body has said turnout was about 70%, down from more than 80% in the first round.