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DATE=10/06/2000

TYPE=CORRESPONDENT REPORT

NUMBER=2-267595

TITLE=IVORY COAST-POL (L)

BYLINE=LUIS RAMIREZ

DATELINE=ABIDJAN

CONTENT:

INTRO: Ivory Coast's supreme court bans opposition leader Alassane Ouattara from running in this month's presidential elections. The elections are to return the West African country to civilian rule following a coup last December. V-O-A's Luis Ramirez in Ivory Coast's main city, Abidjan, reports the announcement was made amid a curfew and a state of emergency.

TEXT: The curfew and state of emergency were declared after supporters of Mr. Ouattara - a former prime minister - vowed to retaliate if he was banned from running.

Mr. Ouattara was among the 14 out of 19 candidates rejected by the supreme court. General Robert Guei, who seized power following the country's first coup last December, was accepted as a candidate.

For months, Mr. Guei has been working to disqualify Mr. Ouattara. Government lawyers charged that Mr. Ouattara is not qualified to be a candidate under Ivory Coast's new constitution which requires that both a candidate's parents be Ivorian-born. The government claims Mr. Ouattara's mother is from Burkina Faso. The constitution also says eligible candidates must never have declared themselves nationals of any other country.

On Friday, the Ivorian supreme court said that documents provided by Mr. Ouattara to support his eligibility contained conflicting information regarding his nationality.

In a lengthy statement delivered on state television (Friday), Supreme Court president Tia Kone read a long list of what the court says are examples that Mr. Ouattara has in the past said he was Voltaic or Burkinabe.

///KONE ACT IN FRENCH, ESTABLISH & FADE///

The justice says: the file reveals that Alassane Ouattara, born on January first 1942, noted himself on travel documents as being of Voltaic nationality.

Mr. Ouattara's support lies mainly among people of the ethnic Dioula-speaking Malinke group of northern Ivory Coast. His supporters have voiced frustration at what they say is the continued control of the country's politics by the Baule people of the south.

Among those barred from running in the elections are former President Henri Konan Bedie, who was ousted in the December coup and Emil Constant Bombet. Both men belong to the (Ivorian Democratic) party that, until December, had ruled Ivory Coast since its independence in 1960.

Mr. Ouattara was seen as a serious challenger to General Guei. The only notable candidate now allowed to run against the military ruler is socialist Laurent Gbagbo (of the Ivorian Popular Front party). The remaining three accepted are considered minor candidates whose names have seldom been mentioned by Ivorian newspapers.

General Guei is running despite protests from the United States and other members of the international community. A U-S diplomat (Nancy Powell) met with Mr. Guei on Friday and expressed U-S concerns over Ivory Coast's ongoing political crisis.

///REST OPT///

The supreme court's decision was read as a curfew went into effect across Ivory Coast. Abidjan's outlying areas (Abobo, Adjame, Yapougon) that are home to many Ouattara supporters were reported quiet in the hours following the announcement.

(SIGNED)

NEB/LR/PT