DATE=7/20/2000
TYPE=CORRESPONDENT REPORT
TITLE=IVORY COAST REFERENDUM (L-ONLY)
NUMBER=2-264619
BYLINE=PURNELL MURDOCK
DATELINE=ABIDJAN
CONTENT=
VOICED AT:
INTRO: Ivory Coast citizens will vote Sunday in a
referendum on the nation's constitution. As V-O-A's
Purnell Murdock reports from Abidjan, the vote is part
of the military government's plan to restore civilian
rule by the end of this year.
TEXT: The central issue in the referendum is the
nationality of the president. Specifically, Ivorian
voters will decide whether to accept a constitutional
requirement that the president be born of two Ivorian
parents.
The issue has been at the center of a political fight
between ousted president Henri Konan Bedie and his
main political rival. Alassane Ouattara.
Mr. Bedie and his political party cast doubt about Mr.
Ouattara's nationality, saying that one of his parents
was from neighboring Burkina Faso. Mr. Ouattara and
his supporters deny the claim.
The political battle threatened to split the nation
and is considered one reason for the military coup
that ousted Mr. Bedie last December.
Shortly after assuming power, military leader Robert
Guei tried to defuse the dispute with a decree that
any president have at least one Ivorian parent.
But General Guei says he found during a tour of the
country that the overwhelming majority of citizens
prefer their president be purely Ivorian.
Here in, Abidjan, many citizens seem to agree.
/// WOMAN ACT - IN FRENCH - FADE UNDER ///
This businesswoman says the presidency of a country
must always come back to a real son of that country.
She says Ivorians cannot entrust the presidency to
someone whose nationality is so in doubt.
Ivory Coast's political parties, including Mr.
Ouattara's Rally of the Republicans party, have called
on their supporters to vote for the two-parent rule.
Mr. Ouattara's party leaders say they are not
concerned about the two-parent rule because, they say,
Mr. Ouattara's Ivorian nationality can be confirmed.
The constitutional referendum is part of the military
government's program to restore civilian rule in Ivory
Coast. Preparations have gone mostly without
incident.
But a short-lived mutiny by a small group of soldiers
several weeks before the vote caused concern that some
elements might try to derail the transition.
Some Ivorians believe that peace will last. But
others, like 25-year-old student N'dri Martial, say
peace will come only after the military goes back to
the barracks.
/// MARTIAL ACT - IN FRENCH - FADE UNDER ///
Mr. Martial says the transition must be finished
because the military could rebel again. He says
nothing is guaranteed under a military government. At
any moment, he says you could wake up to gunfire.
The military coup in December was the first in Ivory
Coast since it won independence from France in August
1960.
Military ruler Robert Guei has promised to stick to
his transition program and hold presidential elections
in October. (Signed)
NEB/WPM/JWH/PW
20-Jul-2000 09:39 AM EDT (20-Jul-2000 1339 UTC)
NNNN
Source: Voice of America
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