Officials of the UN peacekeeping mission in Cote d'Ivoire (ONUCI) and the French Licorne force met on Thursday to discuss security for the first presidential elections to be held in October in the West African country since 2005.
Licorne commander Jean Pierre Pallasset said after the meeting, "We also talked about the mounting in power of the Center of Integrated
Command, to which the security part of the process has been confided."
The command also involves the former government army FDS and the ex-rebel forces FAFN.
"We are in the process of working to ensure that security holds in better conditions. There is no reason for this being bad," said the Licorne chief, in reference to the joint work of the four- party command.
Cote d'Ivoire recently fixed the election date on Oct. 31 after repeatedly postponing the polls for a variety of reasons, especially differences between the government and the ex-rebel New Forces (NF).
ONUCI and Licorne have maintained their troops since deployed in the country in the wake of a civil war unleashed by a coup attempt in 2002. Under a peace accord brokered by Burkina Faso in 2007, the rival sides agreed to form a coalition government pending a vote to end the de facto division between the loyalist- controlled south and the FN-held north since the end of the civil war in 2003.
The country was due to hold the presidential elections in 2005, but has failed again and again. Political differences and poor preparations postponed the polls from November 2009 to the first half of 2010 and then to the second half in the latest setbacks.