Abidjan — Impatience with the slow vote count in the Cote d'Ivoire presidential election turned into unrest late afternoon, when supporters of one of the front runners, Laurent Gbagbo,took to the streets in protest in several parts of the commercial capital, Abidjan.
Soldiers fired tear gas to disperse a group of about 200 demonstrators heading for one of the main bridges that separates the working class Treichville area from Plateau, the central business and administrative district.
Gbagbo, who heads the Ivorian Popular Front or FPI, is in competition for the presidency with the military leader General Robert Guei and three other candidates.
Troop reinforcements were deployed at key positions, including the radio and television stations, after soldiers barred journalists from the National Electoral Commission headquarters on the Plateau.
Reporters, including the national broadcaster RTI, were later allowed back into the building where, it is said, vote-counting continues. Earlier, some soldiers attempted - and temporarily succeeded - in stopping publication of results at the Commission. They ordered staff to stop broadcasting interim results live.
Shortly before, at a news briefing on Monday, Gbagbo announced that all the military barracks had voted for him.
There was concern when the chairman of the Electoral Commission, Honore Guie, failed to make the lunchtime television news for a scheduled live update. When he reappeared, more than an hour later, he said he had been out to lunch.
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The daily 8pm news was delayed for almost half an hour. After several interruptions to a music programme warning of an imminent announcement, a journalist announced to perplexed viewers that Ivorians must be patient, that the broadcast of results would continue, but that there was nothing new to say. No more news was forthcoming.
Laurent Gbagbo has held several meetings and press conferences since the presidential poll on Sunday, predicting his victory and giving his own interim election results.
General Guei has been silent since he voted on Sunday morning when he told journalists that Cote d'Ivoire was a peace-loving nation
But the information minister and government spokesman, Henri Cesar Sama Damalan, a naval officer, went on the offensive Monday saying Guei was sure to win because he had proved in the ten months since the coup that he was a good leader.
The minister added that it was not right for Laurent Gbagbo to be announcing results when all had agreed this task fell to the Electoral Commission.
