Sara Atteby

Election Campaigning Finally Begins in Ivory Coast

15 octobre 2010 by Sara Atteby

Since 2002 political debate in the Ivory Coast has been common place among every day discussions and now finally, eight years later, Ivorians are seeing the first concrete signs of the long awaited presidential elections now planned for the 31 October. After being postponed numerous times, the promised ID cards have at last been handed out and last night the first candidate’s posters began to fill the city of Abidjan.

The main three front runners who today declared their election candidacy are the current President Laurent Gbagbo, former President Henri Konan Bedié and former Prime Minister Alassane Ouattara. The first round of polls show Gbagbo to be in the lead, with Bedié and Ouattara a close 2^nd and 3^rd.

The United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has announced that he welcomes the start of the election campaigning and has called on political parties to campaign peacefully. “The holding of open, free, fair and transparent elections will represent a major milestone towards the peaceful resolution of the conflict”.

By Sara Atteby

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New Temporary Power Plant to Support Deteriorating Energy Supplies in Abidjan

15 octobre 2010 by Sara Atteby

In August of this year a temporary gas fuelled power plant was brought online in the Vridi Canal in Abidjan, Ivory Coast. Agrekko, the company who won the £31m contract, stated that its purpose is to compensate for the breakdown of permanent facilities already running in the country. The plant has 50 locally employed engineers and technicians and the project will run till mid 2012.

The contract was awarded to Agrekko in March by the Société de Gestion du Patrimoine du Secteur de l’Electricité (SOGEPE) and the Société d’Opération Ivoirienne d’Electricité (SOPIE).

Business Monitor reported in December of last year that the World Bank would be providing a US$50mn grant to ‘rehabilitate, improve and expand the electricity distribution network’ in the Ivory Coast.

By Sara Atteby

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Football: Yaya Toure “I Will Be Back in Barcelona”

12 octobre 2010 by Sara Atteby

After Yaya Toure’s recent move in July of this year from Barcelona to Manchester City, he expressed his desire this week to return to Spain. In an interview with Radio Catalunya he said, “I will be back in Barcelona to play, not as a tourist. I want to return to Barcelona, because to leave was the hardest moment of my life”.

The 27 year old Ivory Coast international player stated in a previous interview in January of 2009, “…I love Barcelona. It is the best club in the world…I want to finish my career here and show everyone that this club means a lot to me…”.

Yaya Toure began his career in Europe in Belgium and then moved across the continent to the Ukraine, Greece, Monaco, Spain and now the UK. He told Radio Catalunya, “…what I want are games, not sitting on the bench. I won everything there [Barcelona] and needed other challenges”.

“For me, Manchester City is a very nice challenge. This is a team that is not playing in the Champions League, and that has not won any titles recently. Therefore, they are perfect for me.”

By Sara Atteby

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UN sends 500 more troops for Ivory Coast Presidential Elections

11 octobre 2010 by Sara Atteby

In preparation for the upcoming Presidential elections planned for 31^st October in the Ivory Coast, the United Nations Security Council agreed in September to send a further 500 ‘Blue Helmets’ to add to their peacekeeping force there, known as ‘UNOCI’. The purpose of these additional troops, says UN spokesman Hamadoun Touré is “to beef up UNOCI’s strength”, providing logistical and technical assistance for the polls.

According to the UN News Centre, 150 Senegalese soldiers have already arrived in the country and a further 150 will arrive from Togo this week. The 8650 UN officers already present in the Ivory Coast for the mission were deployed across the country to assist in delivering voter registration and ID cards last week.

By Sara Atteby