Cote d'Ivoire's Prime Minister Guillaume Soro is upbeat about the holding of the Nov. 29 presidential elections, saying that the long-awaited publication of provisional electoral list could be a matter of hours.
He announced on Sunday that the list would be published after cross-checking and that the process could be a matter of hours.
The announcement came after his meeting with President Laurent Gbagbo and the president of the independent electoral commission (CEI) in
Yamoussoukro.
A communique to be published on Monday is to give details on " the operation which we have asked the technicians to undertake so that we can
get to know the fate of the Ivorians who are among the 1.9 million after the publication of the different lists," he said.
He pointed out that the meeting had the objective of getting to know more on the electoral process, especially on the preparation of the poll
list.
"We have discussed all the questions related to the preparation of the provisional poll list and other measures to be taken," Soro explained.
"There are 1.9 million voters who are still subject to investigation.
It's these investigation that we have called for today," the prime minister told the public.
According to Soro, the provisional poll list will be displayed "in all public places so that Ivorians can thoroughly examine it before the
beginning of the campaign periods."
He affirmed that only the technicians can explain the fate of the 1.9 million registered voters whose names did not appear in former
registrations.
"We have asked the technicians of SAGEM and INS to find out the fate of these 1.9 million Ivorians," he said.
Initially scheduled for Aug. 24, the publication of the provisional electoral list has been put off twice, despite its official hand-over early in that month for verification.
The presentation of the voter list which has 6,384,816 people must be followed by its publication, which has to be done as early as possible.
Under a recent decree, the publication is done at least one month before the first round of the election.
After the hand-over of the list to President Gbagbo by the technical team in charge of the voter identification operation, "contentious cases" were alleged to number 2.7 million, posing a risk to derail the whole process.
Of the 6,384,816 people enrolled, 2,678,069 were put on the 2000 electoral list, while 2,752,181 did not appear in any historical
registration.
The case of those who do not feature in any voter registration has triggered controversy amon politicians, of whom some are decrying it as a
"fraud," asking for their removal from the list. Others see it as a "controversial issue" that needs clarification.
The newly unveiled figure of 1.9 million whose names did not appear in former registrations marked a sharp decline in controversial voters.
The controversy is reminiscent of the ignition of turmoil years ago.
The issue of nationality was the Gordian knot of the crisis which started in September 2002, following an attempted coup d'etat of the ex-rebels of the FN, who are stationed in the northern parts of the country.
The West African country has repeatedly postponed the planned presidential vote since 2005, when Gbagbo's term of office expired.