Dakar — Less than three months remain before Ivoirians elect their new president, but, to most Ivorians, it is all still just rumours.

Officially, no authority or any institution has yet announced that the polls will be postponed.

On the contrary, those in charge are trying to curb the persisting rumours and to reassure the citizens.

The outgoing president, Laurent Gbagbo, is campaigning. The different political parties are also doing the same, yet the citizens, who have seen several times the election date changed in the past three years remain doubtful. The local media analysts already say they are hundred percent "sure" no election will be held as planned in two months and half.

Amidst those growing speculations, the Independent Electoral Commission (CEI) announced on September 7 a series of measures and confirmed that the elections will be held on due date.

"The CEI would like to remind everybody, in case it would be necessary, that it is pursuing its planned activities with a view to holding the presidential election on November 30", the Ivorian electoral body said.

The CEI's statement was visibly meant to mute the speculations and counter the many media reports, all of them unanimously announcing that it is not "technically" possible to have elections on November 30th anymore.

The CEI also announced that preparations are going on, to start the training of the electoral staff, and more particularly the training of those officers who will be in charge of voter identification and registration.

If voter identification and registration are a key step in any electoral process, In Cote d'Ivoire, it represents more than that. It is a vital phase. It is the main stake in the centre of the pre-electoral battle ground.

In this nation, where official figures say 26 per cent of the populations are "foreigners" or have foreign ancestors, and where the most serious civil war started over the issue of citizenship, it matters to know who is Ivoirian and who is not (the concept of Ivoirité or Ivorian-ness ).

It is equally important to know, who can vote and who cannot? Who is eligible to hold office and who is not? This has been a contentious issue for more than a decade and is amongst the main causes of the current stalemate.

For instance, one of the possible candidates at this year's election - if they are held at all this year - is Alassane Dramane Outtara.

This 66 year old economist, who worked for years for international financial institutions in Africa and in Washington, was also - and that is more important maybe - the former Prime minister of Houphouet Boigny, the man who led the country to independence and served as president until his death in 1993.

At Houphouet's death, Mr Ouattara who lost the succession battle, was afterwards to be denied the Ivorian citizenship by the successive rulers of the country: former president Henry Konan Bédié, the former military General Robert Guei, and the current president Laurent Gbagbo, who in his own words admits to have been "disastrously elected" in 2001, because he had to seize power through a popular uprising, while final elections results being announced seemed to favour the outgoing ruler, General Guei.

Ever since, this issue of citizenship has polluted politics in Cote d'Ivoire.