Cote d'Ivoire candidates given final poll register

Cote d'Ivoire's Independent Electoral Commission (CEI) on Tuesday gave candidates in the Oct. 25 presidential election the final poll register and the ballot paper specimens.

The electronic version of the poll register, 10,000 specimens of the single ballot paper and all other documents that are necessary for organization of the forthcoming elections were given to the 10 representatives of the candidates.

The final electoral register has 6.3 million people who include 3.1 million women and 3.2 million men.

The voters have been distributed in 10,336 polling centers that include 42 in the diaspora and 19,838 polling stations, each comprising of between 70 to 400 voters.

CEI President Youssouf Bakayoko warned candidates against opening the lists and the ballot paper specimens before the official campaign period that will start on Friday and last for two weeks.

"Our institution is committed to ensuring the principle of 'one man, one vote' is respected as required in a democracy," he said, insisting that "CEI will remain impartial in the whole process."

On Monday, opposition candidates allied to the National Coalition for Change organized a protest march at the CEI headquarters calling for the commission's dissolution since, according to them, "it was biased towards the government side." Endit