UN Security Council welcomes appointment new Prime Minister of Côte d’Ivoire

The United Nations Security Council today welcomed the appointment of banker Charles Konan Banny as Prime Minister of Côte d’Ivoire and called for the establishment of the Government without delay so that he can quickly carry out plans for elections.

The electoral road map was defined by the International Working Group (IWG), which includes the UN, African Union (AU), the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), the European Union (EU), the International Organization of the Francophone, the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund (IMF), six African countries, France, the United Kingdom and the United States. It receives reports from its representatives charged with mediating, called the Mediation Group, and the Council’s sanctions committee.

In the Council statement read out by Ambassador Emyr Jones Parry, the Permanent Representative of the United Kingdom, which holds the rotating presidency for December, the 15-member body also commended the continued and decisive efforts of Presidents Olusegun Obasanjo of Nigeria, Thabo Mbeki of South Africa and Mamadou Tandja of Niger and reiterated its full support for them.

The Security Council endorsed a recent IWG communiqué which stated that the Prime Minister has full authority over the Cabinet he will establish and that he must have all necessary powers and resources.

That communiqué also referred to a Security Council resolution of 21 October which said the Prime Minister must have all governmental financial, material and human resources, particularly with regard to security, defence and electoral matters, to ensure the effective functioning of the Government, to guarantee security and the redeployment of the administration and public services throughout the territory of Côte d’Ivoire.

Given these, he must “lead the programme of disarmament, demobilization and reintegration (DDR) and the operations of disarmament and dismantling of militias, and to ensure the fairness of the identification process and of voter registration, leading to the organization of free, open, fair and transparent elections, with the support of the United Nations.”

The Council said in its statement that under IWG monitoring, the resolution must be fully implemented by the Ivorian parties.